On May 19 Colorado became part of the second biggest sport in the world’s community, as Lt. Governor Barbara O’Brien proclaimed June Colorado Rugby Month at Infinity Park in Glendale.

Rugby, a game that resembles football and smear the, uh, one with the ball, is the second most popular sport on Earth next to soccer. Played much like a free-flowing football game with soccer rules, rugby is a violent madman’s sport created from soccer.

The invention of rugby is rumored to come from Rugby School, one of the oldest and prestigious independent boarding schools in the United Kingdom. A student named William Web Ellis caught a soccer ball in the middle of a pick-up game and ran to the opposing goal with the ball under his arm, similar to a football. As rugby lore goes, the game evolved from there and started to resemble modern day football in the U.S., 100 years before the American sport was invented.

To the untrained eye, a rugby game looks like a football game that doesn’t stop after every play, but keeps going much like soccer. There is much more than this to the game, including massive pseudo-wrestling matches for ball possesion. Much like football, to score you must go the length of the field and into a “touchdown” area. For the point to count the ball must touch the ground, legitamizing the word touchdown. Ironically, scores are called “tries” not touchdowns.

The Rugby World Cup’s trophy, Webb Ellis Cup, is named after the originator.

The Churchill Cup, an annual international rugby tournament named after former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, held the tournament’s pool play in Glendale at Infinity Park, before playing the elimination rounds at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J.

Teams from the U.S., Canada and England, with the intentions of raising interest in the sport in North America and developing English players trying to make the national team, created the Churchill Cup. Several other countries are invited to compete in the tournament along with the three founding nations.

France, Russia and Uruguay were the three teams invited to contended for the cup this year, bringing some high-profile rugby teams, like France and England, to Colorado for the second-straight year.

The England Saxons, the English national team’s B team, took home the Cup championship this season with a 38-18 win over Canada while the United States lost 24-10 in the third-place game. The Saxons have a commanding presence over the Churchill Cup, winning 18 of their 22 total matches and playing in all eight cups. The United States has had the opposite fortune, competing in every Cup but only claiming four victories in their 22 matches.

Despite the U.S.’s misfortune in Churchill Cup play, Colorado’s support and enthusiasm for rugby continued as USA Rugby Men’s Collegiate National All-Star Championships coincided with the Churchill Cup.

The Collegiate National All-Star Championships is a tournament comprised of teams that represent geographic areas of the U.S.

The South beat the Pacific Coast in a low-scoring, defensive battle 14-13 to cap off a rugby-filled weekend at Infinity Park.

With a style of play that is similar to football, rugby has the scoring and physical play that can attract the typical American sports fan. The support that Colorado has been mustering over the years is not unusual, as many of the less-popular sports in the United States, like soccer or lacrosse, are finding success in the Rockies.

The Glendale Raptors, Colorado’s professional rugby team, has been an essential component to the sport’s popularity. Infinity Park, the Raptors home field, hosts an abundance of rugby games, from matches versus colleges to international games, and have found a supportive home for the rumbling violent sport in one of the best sporting states in the U.S.