There is a wide range of ball games that are fun to play and also entertaining to watch. Among these games is rugby, a popular sport in many countries around the world. Its popularity is attributed to the intense spirit and passion of the game. Rugby is characterized by contact, physical strength, extreme violence, and the likes. Because of these qualities, many perceive it as a dangerous sport. However, it is the passion, the love, and the intensity of the game that draws many people. In spite of the perceived danger, rugby can be played by a diverse range of people including the men, women, children and the elderly with the same rules of the game. Rugby is a fascinating sport that involves players of two teams running with a ball across a rectangular field towards H-shaped goalposts at each end of the field as defined by the rules of the sport.
Rugby traces its origin in the style of football today. The sport was invented after a student defied the conventions of the idea of getting a ball, kicking it forward to score on the other side of the pitch. To some extent, rugby and football share some similarities except in one, feet are used and in the other, it is the hands. This is proof that rugby originated from football. It is still unclear when the sport was officially invented but various scholarships have it that rugby came to life in the mid-1800s ( Scianitti, 2011) . Today, less than two centuries later, more than six million people around the world play the sport ( International Rugby Board, 2019) . Almost three million of the number are registered professional athletes in their respective countries ( International Rugby Board, 2019) . Rugby is a huge sport that is continuing to grow.
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Like most sports, rugby is played by two opposing sides. Each side or team consists of fifteen players. What this means is at any match, there are thirty players in the field minus the referee. In rugby, each team carries the ball, passes, or kicks it to their opponent’s end to score. The winner of the match is the side that scores the most points. A single match lasts about 90 minutes with 45 minutes for each half and five minutes break between (How to play rugby). There are no time outs in rugby unless in cases of injuries in which the referee is allowed one minute to decide whether the player can continue playing or not. Substitution applies in rugby, like other team-based sports. Only seven changes are permitted in every game where six them are at the discretion of the team and the other one reserved for injuries (how to play rugby). Once substituted, a player cannot rejoin the game unless it is a case of a severe injury of which he can only rejoin within ten minutes of a break.
A match begins with a kickoff at the center of the pitch. This is a concept borrowed from football as well. Before the match starts, a coin-flipping trick is done to decide what side gets to start the match. Once the game is underway, the objective is to make every effort to score as many tries as possible. Scoring a try involves touching the ball in the rival’s in-goal ground – a score that is worth five points. After a try, the referee allows the team to earn an addition of two points by kicking the ball over and in-between the opponent’s H-shaped cross-bar. This is a trick that is known as conversion ( Scianitti, 2011) . Therefore, a successful try and conversion are worth seven points. The referee can award a penalty to an offended side, which is taken from anywhere in the field but usually at the drop kick or the goal. A penalty is worth three points.
Every sport has its set of rules, and so does rugby. The first rule is that the side that scores more points wins the match. These points, as indicated above, can be scored in multiple ways – tries, conversion kicks, and penalty kicks. The second rule applies to passing and kicking; although players move forward towards their opponent’s goal, the ball is never be passed forward but backward or laterally. The ball only gets to move forward when it is kicked, scrum, or when a player runs with it to score a try. The third rule applies to breakdowns – a team can stop their opponent from scoring through tackles and rucks. This involves bringing them down or by contesting for the ball. Other areas the rules may extend include set pieces, substitutions, offenses, and match structures.
In spite of its bad reputation, rugby is a beautiful sport. An element of the game worth noting is that despite the aggressiveness, level of strength, and speed of the players, it teaches people, especially the players, the concept of people skills. According to the rules of the game, players get to learn about boundaries, teamwork, empathy, and more. The beauty of the game is in the set rules and guidelines and so does safety. Therefore, just like a majority of the sports, it is important to learn about the sport, in terms of how it is played, rules, benefits, risks, and the likes, before making the decision to join.
References
How to Play Rugby. Retrieved 10 December 2019, from http://www.princetonacrugby.com/how-to-play-rugby.html
International Rugby Board. (2019). 119 countries... 6.6 million players. Retrieved 10 December 2019, from https://rugbyredefined.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/irb-dev-glob-map.pdf
Scianitti, M. (2011). The world awaits for Canada’s rugby team | Sports | National Post. Retrieved from https://archive.ph/20130129194424/http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/06/18/the-world-awaits-for-canadas-rugby-team/
