h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone know? Because I don't but I want to learn because I have friends who play and who can't explain it.

Gooday Ivana,

Just thought I would return your compliment and visit you. Was there any particular aspect of Rugby you wanted explained, or all of it? And just to be sure, are you talking of Rugby Union or Rugby League - they are similar but different games? With Rugby Union, the objective of the game is as simple as it can be. It is the rules of the game that are so complicated.

Walter.

Rugby is all about donating...blood, that is.

It's a game played by men with funny shaped balls.

I think that it is Rugby Union. ANd is there somewhere I can find out what the rules are, that's what I don't understand?

Well, you can try the international rugby laws at (URL removed by moderator)
. but that's just all the laws, and doesn't really explain the game, though all the rules are there (and I mean ALL ... it's pretty boring reading).

Perhaps I can explain a general form of the game here. The object is to score points by either touching the ball down in the try zone (this is called a "try"), and/or by kicking the ball through the upright goal either through a penalty kick, drop kick, or conversion. Rugby balls are bigger then any other kind of football (well, with the possible exception of Aussie Rules Football which is just ... well, it's Australian 'nuff said). Okay, so there are a couple of major rules that govern how to score points. First off, there are typically 15 players on each side (though there are frequent matches of which 10 players play per side, and other variations). Each player is allowed to run with / kick the ball (that is, as long as it's allowable to do so at the time, but let's not get into that) and each is allowed to tackled anyone with the ball (unlike American football, there is no blocking or interfering with people who don't have the ball). Tackling is performed by grabbing someone at or below the waist (any higher than that and a penalty could be called for 'high tackling'). Also, and this is perhaps the most interesting thing about the game, the ball can be passed ONLY backwards. It cannot be thrown forwards at all. If a player knocks or bumps the ball forward, a 'knock-on' has occurred, and (depending on who has the ball such that an advantage is being played) the referee will call a penalty. Kicking gets a little more complicated, and is usually used as a defensive weapon, although there are some very notable instances where kicking gan garner lots of points, either through penalties or through drop kicked goals. Suffice it to say that who kicked it, from where, and where it hit the ground decides a line-out (like a "throw-in" in soccer, for my fellow Americans, but a lot rougher and with strict rules on how the teams are allowed to line up).

Other things that happen are rucks, mauls, and scrums. Rucks and mauls are similar, and are (simply put) what happens when lots of guys converge on the player with the ball. Rucks and mauls are active, however, and are not like a scrum (which is frequently called when a ruck or maul stops moving). A scrum is where both sides bind together in a formation, then engage at the signal of the referee, pushing directly on each others' shoulders ... in the no-man's land between, one of the teams' players puts the ball into play, and the players in the scrum attempt to hook it with their feet, passing it back to the fly-half in back who then picks it up and plays it.

As you might guess, there are lots of rules in rugby, with some variation of interpretation depending on where the game is played. And why people generally say, "you have to play it to learn it" is because a large part of the game is knowing, instinctively and instantly, where you need to be at a given moment. The game doesn't really stop much, so it's important to keep your head up and wits about you as you play it - it seems that the most challenging thing is to learn how to play the game without having to learn NOT how to play the game first, if you follow me. In other words, the best coaches show you how to play instead of how NOT to play. Sadly, those coaches are relatively few and far between here in the USA. I've managed to learn some of the sport over the last 5 years or so, but mostly it's been by learning from my mistakes. Two good ruggers (a hooker and a fellow prop, from New Zealand and Australia respectively) taught me more in one month than I ever learned in those five years', though. Rugby is a way of life down under, it seems!

So, any others out there that know this sport far better than I do, please feel free to chime in.

mmm, Rugby, fun, playing tomorrow, small people, go out, tackle, watch them get subsituted while they get their breath back... Easy to get hurt in 10 minutes, easy for it to take 10 months to heal, collar bone - ow, heh...

Tired, no think long sentences....

Rugby is a game for ruffians played by gentlemen, whereas Football is the reverse!