History Of The Ball
Richard Lindon (seen left, in 1880) is believed to have invented the first footballs with rubber bladders.
Until the late 1860s rugby was played with a leather ball with an inner-bladder made of a pig's bladder. The shape of the bladder imparted a vaguely oval shape to the ball but they were far more spherical in shape than they are today.
In 1851 a football of the kind used at Rugby School was exhibited at the first World's Fair, the Great Exhibition in London, this ball can still be seen at the Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum and it has a definite ovoid shape. In 1862 Richard Lindon introduced rubber bladders and because of the pliability of the rubber, balls could be manufactured with a more pronounced shape and, because an oval ball was easier to handle, a gradual flattening of the ball continued over the years as the emphasis of the game moved towards handling and away from dribbling.
In 1892 the RFU included compulsory dimensions for the ball in the Laws of the Game for the first time. In the 1980s leather-encased balls, which were prone to water-logging, were replaced with balls encased in synthetic waterproof materials.

The Legend of the Amabokoboko Rugby Ball

Johan Smal, CEO of Amabokoboko Sport PTY LTD, started the rugby ball development process about three years ago after the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He realised South Africa is the world champions, have the largest pool of competitive players in the world, have the largest clubs in the world but we do not own our own known rugby brand.
During our sales calls to schools we started to realise that there is a frustrastion amongst our clients with the current supply of balls and also the quality of the product that is currently on the market. He teamed up with an agent that supply soccer balls to the schools and his supplier was also offering rugby balls. This he learnt is a very long process as these balls are manufactured in Asia. Johan received his first set of samples after 10 weeks. And was impressed to see the first Amabokoboko rugby ball to land in SA but soon realised that the balls were not competitive. This is where the development process started.

After further research on the internet he found another supplier that could speak “technical rugby language”. They shared specifications and the first batch of samples arrived 10 weeks later. This time around the qualty was far better across all categories except for the flagship balls – the Match ball and the International Match ball. These balls were given to: Hamiltons, UCT, WP Rugby Institute and Braam Van Straaten.

The first test results showed that Amabokoboko were competitive but not 100% where we needed to be. The handling and grip of the ball was superior but there were areas in the ball where we had to improve. The one area is called the sweetspot. This principle is shared with golf. When you hit the ball with the correct timing, angle, the right place and the optimised level of energy transfer you will get the distance. The other area is the balance of the ball. In March 2011 Johan traveled to Asia to the manufacturer to spend time with him and his processes to understand completely how a ball is manufactured. Taking the variables into consideration to achieve our key success areas, they manufactured 10 test balls, with different permutations. I also bougth three competitor balls, therefore handed thirteen balls to them for testing.
We achieved outstanding results. The test balls were rated and sent back to the manufacturer for reproduction of two of the 10 balls. On the 22nd of July we received a batch of the Match Ballsand are waiting for the new improved batch of International Match Balls. These test balls will be distributed again to various well known rugby players and unions for further feedback. They will assist with the final approval of the competitive rugby balls.
Our vision with the Amabokoboko rugby ball is to be a very competitive ball and to roll it out to schools, clubs and unions and also to use it as a marketing tool to the schools to gain acess to their sport clothing.
The next step is the development of an Amabokoboko netball ball. Netball is the fastest growing sport in the townships.