Make sure to check our the first and second posts of this series before reading this!
When Rugby becomes WTF
Note: Rugby professionals (commentators and even players) sometimes don’t understand what happens during the following rugby phases.
As we’ve seen before, when the player who carries the ball gets tackled, he usually falls on the ground. At this very moment, he has a couple of seconds to release the ball behind him to let his teammates continue to play — the scrum-half (#9) picks the ball, passes it to the fly-half (#10), etc. However, when he’s on the ground, striving to release the ball in good conditions, the opponent players who are standing next to him are allowed to steal the ball. That’s why the ball-carrier’s teammates (usually the strong forwards) gently lie down on the carrier to make sure the opponent can’t steal the ball. This is called a ruck and it often is the cause of many penalties (if some players don’t keep the ball “alive”).
Not to mention that it usually looks like a mass of legs and arms:
The second WTF moment in rugby is the scrum. The scrum is quite legendary and an identity phase of rugby as the forwards can measure their force against the opponent team’s forwards. A scrum occurs when one of the teams makes a minor fault — usually a knock-on. During a scrum, the forwards line up in their natural positions before the two front rows collide. Then, the scrum-half (number 9) from the team that didn’t make the foul throws the ball between the two front rows. The forwards tries to push the opposing pack as much as they can to walk over the ball and wins it. In practice, the team that throws the ball in the scrum usually wins it. Scrums are also the source of a lot of penalties.
The third and last WTF rugby moment takes place when the ball is thrown (deliberately or not) out of the limits of the field. The rugby Gods could have been inspired by football and could have made it simple and straightforward. But they didn’t. When a player throws or kicks the ball outside, the ball is given back to the opposing team. The forwards of both teams line up in front of the hooker (number 2) of the opponent team who, from the touchline, throws the ball in the air between these two fleshy lines. According to some mysterious strategies, one of the forwards is carried in the air by two of his teammates to try to catch the ball. This very spectacular phase is called a lineout and the team that throws the ball generally catches it.
Is Rugby Just About Kicking?
Sometimes, you’ll see the backs of a team kicking the ball far away into their opponent’s camp. Even if it looks unnecessary and aimless because they lose the possession of the ball, it’s actually a way to put pressure on the opposing players. If a player kicks the ball far into the opponent’s camp, the opposing players will have to catch the ball properly and try to find a solution to run all the way back from their 22 meter line.
Because rugby would become overly lame if players kept kicking the ball, waiting for their opponent to make a foul, players can mark the ball. This dramatic rule allows a player standing between his try line and the 22-meter line to momentarily stop the game when he catches a ball kicked by the opposing team. It is dramatic since the ball catcher has to shout “MARK!” to halt the game. Without any defensive pressure from the opposing team, he can then run with the ball or kick the ball as far as he can.
A Bit Of Context
I think you now know enough about rugby to understand a match and more importantly, enjoy watching it. However and like most sports, it is essential to be aware of 2019 rugby context to be certain of which matches are worth watching, which players will make a difference and which team is probably going to win the World Cup.
In the world of rugby, only a few national teams are able to win the World Cup for the simple reason that rugby isn’t a professional sport in all qualified countries. There’s basically a battle for the Webb Ellis cup between 4 nations in the Southern Hemisphere (New-Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Argentina) and 5 in Europe (England, Ireland, France, Wales, Scotland). This year’s World Cup favourites are New-Zealand and England even if South Africa, Ireland, Wales and Australia put up a good fight.
Because only the 9 aforementioned teams can legitimately win the World Cup, it also means that the other 11 qualified teams have absolutely no chance to win it. This is why you see huge scores when a world-class team plays against a second-tier team.
Australia won 142 to 0 against Namibia during the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Yep, that’s 22 tries and 16 conversions. This year, we might expect a similar score when New-Zealand will play against Namibia on October 6th.
By its very communal nature, rugby doesn’t count as many stars as football, basketball or tennis. Players like Jonny Wilkinson (England) or Jonah Lomu (New-Zealand) revolutionised the game both technically and physically but now that the professional transition is almost over, every team owns at least two or three smashing players. The most famous rugby players are usually playing as backs since their kicking and running skills make them spectacular line-breakers and try-scorers.
Because of the importance of the team spirit in rugby, it is probably not right to glorify certain players who may make a difference during crucial matches of the upcoming World Cup. Even in the best team in the world — certainly New Zealand at the moment — it is impossible to give the name of 2 or 3 of their best players. Rugby is a game of 15 players (plus 8 substitutes) and the team that will win the Rugby World Cup on November 2nd will be the best team — and not necessarily with the best players.
The Bottom Line
In this post, we’ve seen that rugby is a relatively new professional sport and that the next World Cup is about to take place in England from mid-September.
A rugby team is composed of 15 players: 8 forwards — the pack — and 7 backs which all have specific roles on the field. The forwards are involved in scrums and lineouts whereas the backs are running through the opponent’s defensive line to perform line breaks.
To score points and win the game, a team has to score tries by grounding the ball in the opponent’s in-goal area or by kicking the ball between the opposing posts (penalty kick or drop goal).
Rugby rules seem — to some extent — quite complex compared to football or basketball. But they’re not. As we’ve seen, the somehow-WTF moments of rugby actually make a lot of sense. The 3 following phases are very common in a rugby game and despite being extremely weird for the uninitiated person you were at the beginning of this post, they should be fairly understandable now.
Here are some examples of 3 very common situations in a rugby game:
Because of its very team spirit, single rugby players shouldn’t be in the spotlight. Yet it’s always a good idea to start remembering the names of a few rugby players so that you can safely bet a round of pints on who’s going to score a try during the finals.
That’s it
You can now safely watch a rugby match without vanishing into a corner of the room waiting for this 80-minute suffering to finally be over. It will probably be a bit difficult to follow everything during the first two or three games but you’ll soon enjoy it and will forever be amazed by the nuances of the sport.
As you may have noticed, I deliberately decided not to explain every detail about rugby in this post. You would have probably been overwhelmed with not-so-crucial information otherwise. For example, I only described the most popular worldwide version of rugby — Rugby Union (15 players) — but two other and almost equally-popular versions exist — Rugby League (13 players) and Rugby Sevens (7 players, now an Olympic sport).
You’ll find out more about rugby by yourself (at the pub or even online) but always keep in mind that most rugby professionals don’t actually understand some parts of a rugby game. So it’s fine if you don’t.
