Rugby

by Read Listen Learn

You probably see games of rugby sometimes on sports channels or the news: lots of men fighting over an egg-shaped ball. It doesn't take long to see what they are trying to do. The idea is to carry the ball over the end line on the other team's half of the field. That's called a 'try'. It's like a goal in football. It's also possible to score points by kicking the ball over the bar of a goal like a very big letter ‘H'. It looks like a mix of football (soccer) and American Football.

In Britain, in the early 19th century, people were already playing football in villages and some expensive boarding schools started it to give the boys exercise. They used it to meet and compete with other private schools.

One day, around the year 1830, during a football match at a school called Rugby, someone kicked the ball high in the air. A boy from the other team decided to catch the ball in his hands and not use his feet. Then, he ran with the ball in his arms and carried it into the goal.

In those days, football had no written rules just 'normal ways of doing things', so nobody could tell the boy he had broken the rules. The goal was allowed and from that day the game was played like that at Rugby School. Soon, they changed the shape of the ball from round to egg-shaped because this made the ball easier to carry in the hands or to throw to someone. At the same time, the egg shape made it very hard to kick the ball along the ground because it could go in any direction. This meant that players of the new ‘rugby' football found it better to carry and throw the ball than kick it. Most kicking is at the goal, like a penalty in football. Also, some kicking is by dropping the ball onto the foot.

Soon, there were two versions of rugby: rugby union and rugby league. These days, rugby union is bigger, both because of the number of fans and players and the amount of money it makes. Rugby league is now played mostly in the North of England and in some parts of Australia and New Zealand.

However, rugby league is still important in one way. The game of American football is almost completely based on rugby league with two lines of men advancing and retreating up and down the field in a stop-start game. Rugby union flows. We don't hear the whistle very much.

Another important rule in rugby union is that nobody can throw the ball forwards, only backwards or to the sides. This makes the players pick up and run with the ball, not just kick or throw it forwards to a team-mate waiting by the other team's goal line. If one team kicks the ball over the side line, someone from the other team can throw it back onto the field.

If the ball is still on the pitch when the penalty happens then there is a scrum. This is when some of the biggest and heaviest players from each side make a block by joining arms; then, they push against the other team's block while the ball is thrown into the middle of the scrum. Perhaps by pushing forwards hard enough or by pushing the ball backwards with the feet, one team gets the ball and starts to run forwards. They then pass the ball from player to player as they try to reach the other team's goal line. That's all in Rugby UNION. The rules are a little different in rugby league.

And if those rules sound like they make a lot of hard physical contact, well, they do. Rugby is a hard game in which quite a lot of violence between players is not only allowed but is an important part of the game. There are no helmets or shoulder pads like they have in the American game. This may explain why very few women play rugby compared to the many women who play soccer.

The game is now popular in many parts of the world outside Britain. It is very big in France, especially in the South. It is played internationally by South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina as well; and a number of countries have national teams, like Fiji, Holland or the U.S.A. that come to the competitions. They are not expected to win against the biggest teams but some of them are very good these days and we may see one of them win an international competition very soon.

However, the usual winners would be very happy to see this because it would make rugby even more popular around the world. At the moment, the Rugby World Cup, which is held every four years, has many more countries playing than before and is on TV in more countries. Rugby is played in both the northern hemisphere (in France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and, recently, Italy) and in the southern hemisphere (in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile) and is ready to grow even faster.