A Mom’s Guide to Rugby
There is an official rule book for rugby which is roughly 50 pages long. This is one mother’s unenlightened view of this sport which is not meant to be all inclusive, but hopefully an enjoyable introduction to this sport.
Rugby looks like a bizarre cross between football and soccer, but it is really its own game, invented back in 1823. It’s named after a town in Warwickshire, England. Instead of teams, there are “sides”. There are 8 forwards and 7 backs on each side. Forwards tend to get possession of the ball and pass it to the backs, but both forwards and backs play both offense and defense. Instead of playing on a field, they play on a “pitch”.
15 crazed guys take the pitch for each side at a time. Substitutions are allowed. Once the action starts, the game continues without interruption unless the ball goes out of bounds, or there is a foul, or a team scores. Then the official stops play, organizes everyone for what’s next, and they start in again. They play two halves that seem to last forever when you’re a spectator and it’s below freezing, but is really only 30 minutes.
The game starts with a kickoff from midfield (mid pitch?) that must go at least 10 yds.
After the kickoff they run around a lot, tackle each other a lot, and fall down a lot. Although it looks like they’re just trying to get their uniforms as dirty as possible and pick up some trophy cuts and bruises, they’re really trying to advance the ball down the field to score. Any player may pick up the ball and run with it, pass it, or kick it at any time. Unlike football, they can’t pass the ball forward, only laterally or backwards. Also, unlike soccer, they can’t kick the ball without letting it touch the ground first. When a player gets tackled he can’t cover up the ball, but must release it to allow other players to come in and grab it, so the play goes on.
Now here’s the tricky part. In rugby you don’t only try for a score, when you score it can be a try. Once you cross the goal line and put the ball on the ground it’s a try and it’s worth 5 points. Then you get a conversion kick attempt for two extra points, but the place you kick the ball from is in line with where you got the try. So that’s why when somebody runs across the goal line and doesn’t get tackled immediately, he runs to the middle and puts the ball down at the goal post. It gives the kicker a better chance to score the extra two points, than if the ball has to be kicked at a severe angle. That’s also why defenders will not only try to keep the opposite team out of the goal area, but will try to push them off to the side or over the end. If they are pushed over the end of the goal area, they do not earn a try.
There are two other ways to score as well. If the team receives a penalty (i.e. the other team fouled them), they can kick the ball for a penalty kick, and if they get it between the goal posts it’s three points. Also, at any time, if they wish, they can dropkick the ball during play, and if it goes between the goal posts they score three points.
More next time-
The Struggling to Understand Rugby Mom