What is Rugby?

     Hello readers! Yesterday afternoon I was present at University of Saint Thomas' rugby game due to the fact that my boyfriend is part of the team! Something I noticed was that most of the parents in the audience had no idea what was going on and didn't know how rugby worked. I happened to be in the same situation and so I have my boyfriend on FaceTime to help me explain to you some key rugby terms so if you ever end up watching a game at least you'll know what's going on so here we go! Oh, and don't think football or you'll be confused.

Try- A try is when you touch the ball to the ground past the goal line. When you score a try, you obtain 5 points for your team. The key is that you have to have at least one hand on the ball and it must be on the ground! What I'm getting at is that you can't drop it or just get past the goal line.

Scrum- A scrum results from certain and specific penalties being called. The scrum consists of all forward players (8) and the scrum-half. In the scrum you have three rows of guys that basically push each other to gain control of the ball. At the beginning the ref yells "crouch" at which point the players crouch and get ready. Next he yells "bind" which is when the players all lock on to each other. And finally he yells "set" and that's when the scrum begins. The players push each other back and forth while the scrum-half feeds the ball into the middle of the opposing teams.

In the picture, player #9 is the scrum-half. Apparently every scrum-half is #9. Every number has it's own position!

Scrum-half- The scrum-half orchestrates a lot of what goes on in the game. (If you happen to be thinking football even though I said not to, this is like the quarter back.)

Ruck- A ruck in rugby typically occurs when someone gets tackled. It's to gain possession over the ball. The goal is for SOMEONE to get the ball however you don't just want to run and pick it up. You want to jump over your teammate who was tackled and cover them up and not let anyone from the opposing team get past you. This is because when someone in rugby gets tackled they put the ball in front of them as they face their team so the team has a better opportunity to get the ball. \

Knock- A knock is when a player touches the ball with their hands and it goes forward. This results in a penalty.

Fun facts:
-Rugby players can only pass the ball backwards or horizontally.
-You can drop kick a ball through the uprights at any time.
-There are 30 guys on the field at any time.

     That's all I have this week! Thanks for reading!