Rugby

Rugby is a ball sport that is so named because it was developed in the Rugby School located in the United Kingdom.  It is a type of football and is currently being prominently played in 2 variants: Rugby League games and Rugby Union games.

The “rugby league” variant is seen as the more entertaining, more athletic, more physically demanding, and more spectator friendly type of rugby.  It has fewer play stoppages and it has fewer rules allowing for much more free flowing play.  It is estimated that in the 80 minutes allotted for a rugby game, rugby league rules allow for the ball to be in play for approximately 50 minutes.  On the other hand, the rules of rugby union only allow the ball in play for approximately 35 minutes.  Furthermore, rugby league rules require that each team plays a maximum of 13 players while rugby union rules require teams to field in 15 players.  The lesser number of players allotted by rugby league means that there is more space for the players to cover thus making the game much faster and much more exciting than a game with 15 players covering the same size field.

However, there are also distinct similarities between rugby league games and rugby union games.  Most important of these are the rule that requires the use of an oval shaped ball and the rule that requires players to pass the ball sideways or backwards only.  It is prohibited to pass the ball forward in rugby.  This is to ensure that the ball will only move forward with the players covering ground while running with the ball or by kicking the ball. 

Of course, like most ball games, the primary goal in rugby is to score more points than the other team.  In rugby though, there are four ways to get points on the board. Players can score by: (1) completing a “try”, (2) kicking a “conversion goal”, (3) kicking a “penalty goal”, and (4) kicking a “drop goal”.  

A “try” is gained by a team if it successfully gets one of its players to touch the ball onto the ground of the other team’s goal zone.  This means that the player with the ball must have control of the ball with any part of his upper body until the ball hits the ground.  If the ball is dropped or thrown into the ground of the goal zone it will not be considered a try.  A try is worth 5 points in ruby.

After a try is completed, the team that made the try is given a chance to score an additional 2 points through the conversion goal.  A conversion goal is completed by kicking the ball into the uprights from a point 10 meters from the goal line and straight out from the point where the ball was laid to complete the try.

The penalty goal meanwhile is an option for a team to score 3 points if the defensive team commits a penalty.  The penalty goal is accomplished by kicking the ball into the uprights from a tee that is positioned where the penalty was committed.

Lastly, a team can score 2 points by accomplishing a drop goal.  A drop goal is scored when a player kicks the ball into the uprights after bouncing the ball on the ground.