Making it up as you go... WTF Rugby?
As you may have seen from my main account, a couple of weeks ago, @mrsbozz and I took one of our nephews camping with us. It was a great time spent in the northern part of Michigan and it is hard to believe that time is already over.
The day before we left, we transferred custody of my nephew from his parents to ourselves and that left us with most of the day to kill before we left on Sunday for our trip. He and I watched a movie while @mrsbozz took a nap, but that only lasted about two hours and then we needed something else to do.
The trailer and truck was already packed and ready to go, the baseball game we had been watching was over, so we started doing a little channel surfing.
One thing you need to know about my nephew is the fact that he latches onto things and to some degree becomes obsessed with them. A couple years ago it was anything military related. Then he started football and that became his new passion. Fast forward to this summer when he started playing baseball and you guessed it, his world revolves around baseball now.
I'm sure in a month or so when football starts back up he will shift to that, but for now, it's all about baseball. As I said though, there were no baseball games on the channels we could get this Saturday night, so as you can see from the photo above, somehow we settled on Rugby.
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with this sport. I always find it interesting to watch, but I just don't understand it at all.
Even when I think I am close to understanding what is happening, then something else happens and I am right back to square one. My nephew was even getting into it a little bit.
Though I think he was having just as hard a time as me figuring out what was going on.
Correct me if I am wrong, but based on my best observation, you can only score if it is your turn to try at the goal? Even if the other team intercepts the ball, the play just stops (sort of), but not right away?
I'm guessing teams get a certain number of tries kind of like "downs" in American football? Then the possession flips and the other team trys?
I honestly don't know. I don't think I have ever been more confounded by a sport than I am by Rugby. The only thing that throws me off more than the rules in Rugby is off-sides in soccer. I kind of feel like they just make it all up as they go an there actually aren't any set rules for any of it.
Just chuck the ball wherever you want and run around like a crazy person with no pads on.
Of course I jest, I do want to understand the sport. It would be fun to watch something besides the good old American stand by's from time to time. If you have the time, feel free to enlighten me in the comments.
Just be patient. Like I said, even with three of us watching (@mrsbozz got up from her nap), we couldn't figure it out.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
15 a side is called Rugby Union
and 13 a side is called Rugby league
they are actually quite different games with some significant rule differences!
But in either one you cannot throw the ball forward!
That actually helps me a lot less than you think :) I need more specifics on how an actual possession works.
Which is why I said you need to know which type of rugby is being played. They are two different sports. Rugby league is closer to american football in so far as they keep possession six times before having to kick, rugby union is totally different, you keep possession until you score or the other team gets it or there is a set piece like a throw-in, scrum, free kick or penalty.
How do they determine all of that last stuff. Like I said, it all seems very arbitrary. I don't remember which teams were playing in the match we watched. I remember them mentioning the All Blacks team, but I don't think they were actually playing in this match.
There are set rules, once you know the rules it becomes much clearer. The All Blacks are New Zealand generally regarded as the number 1 rugby union team, but South Africa Australia and England will beg to differ.
The screenshot I saw, the jerseys were club jerseys not international jerseys though, so yes not the All Blacks who do indeed play in All Black!
Okay thanks. I should have paid more attention I guess. I thought I grabbed a shot when they had the score on the screen, but I guess not.
scrum - knock on (dropped ball forward), forward pass, player held up in tackle. Lineout throw not straight.
Free kick- numbers of players in the lineout are different to attacking team, must have same number. incorrect bind at scrum,
Penalty. high tackle, illegal scrumming, offside (players need to be behind last players feet in the scrum or a maul (many players more than 3 fighting for the ball).
There are far more but these are a few of the basics and are most common.
I think all the weird terms don't help that much. It's like a rabbit hole using new terms to define other new terms! :)
No you are wrong in your presumptions. You have the ball for as long as you control it. If you drop the ball forward or are held up in a tackle or do a forward pass then the ball starts with a set play for the opposition via a scrum. You can have 20 phases before you score or are forced into a mistake. Tactics play a big role trying to sucker players out of position and is fascinating to watch plays unfold. It has many rules but most of them are common sense with a few technical one thrown in.
So is a phase the same thing as a backwards pass?
No 1 phase would be a play with no mistakes that comes to a stop and is recycled allowing them to go again. You can have many phases before a mistake happens or the ball gets stuck and the ref blows up for a set piece which is normally a scrum. The side that takes it in if they cannot recycle will lose possession ending that phase. Take it slow as t is very basic.
Yeah, all these terms are totally throwing me. I might need to find a video or something that explains it a bit better.