Editing Cornwall (section)

====Rugby football====
{{main|Rugby union in Cornwall|Rugby league in Cornwall}}
[[File:Olympic Rugby 1908.jpg|thumb|At the 1908 Olympic Games Cornwall's rugby football team represented England (against Australia)]]
Viewed as an "important identifier of ethnic affiliation", [[rugby union]] has become a sport strongly tied to notions of Cornishness.<ref name="Harv221">{{cite book |author=Harvey, David |year= 2002 |title=Celtic Geographies: Old Culture, New Times |url=https://archive.org/details/celticgeographie00harv |url-access=limited |location=London |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-0-415-22396-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/celticgeographie00harv/page/n235 221]}}</ref> and since the 20th century, [[rugby union in Cornwall|rugby union]] has emerged as one of the most popular spectator and team sports in Cornwall (perhaps the most popular), with professional Cornish rugby footballers being described as a "formidable force",<ref name="Clegg10"/> "naturally independent, both in thought and deed, yet paradoxically staunch English patriots whose top players have represented England with pride and passion".<ref name="CornishRug">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/3247717/Cornish-rugby-union-celebrate-125-years-of-pride-and-passion---but-are-they-the-lost-tribe-Rugby.html|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=UK|title=Cornish rugby union celebrate 125 years of pride and passion – but are they the lost tribe?|first=Brendan|last=Gallagher|date=23 October 2008|access-date=7 September 2009|archive-date=27 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027084935/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/3247717/Cornish-rugby-union-celebrate-125-years-of-pride-and-passion---but-are-they-the-lost-tribe-Rugby.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1985, sports journalist [[Alan Gibson]] made a direct connection between the love of rugby in Cornwall and the ancient parish games of hurling and wrestling that existed for centuries before rugby officially began.<ref name="CornishRug"/> Among Cornwall's native sports are a distinctive form of Celtic wrestling related to [[Brittany|Breton]] wrestling, and [[Hurling the Silver Ball|Cornish hurling]], a kind of mediaeval football played with a silver ball (distinct from [[Hurling|Irish Hurling]]). [[Cornish wrestling]] is Cornwall's oldest sport and as Cornwall's native tradition it has travelled the world to places like [[Victoria, Australia]] and [[Grass Valley, California]] following the miners and [[gold rushes]]. Cornish hurling now takes place at [[St. Columb Major]], [[St Ives, Cornwall|St Ives]], and less frequently at [[Bodmin]].{{efn|The Bodmin hurl is held whenever the ceremony of [[beating the bounds]] takes place: each occasion must be five years or more after the last one.}}

In [[rugby league]], [[Cornwall R.L.F.C.]], founded in 2021, will represent the county in the professional league system. The semi-pro club will start in the third tier [[RFL League 1]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/59120702|title=Cornwall to host new rugby league team|work=BBC Sport |accessdate=24 November 2022}}</ref> At an amateur level, the county is represented by [[Cornish Rebels]].