How To Play Rugby
How to Play Rugby Union Football
Although the game of rugby is related to football, understanding how to play rugby will not come from watching American football. Rugby is a complex and fast-paced sport with none of the frequent stops in play that you find in American football. Rugby also has an entirely different set of rules. If you really want to understand how to play rugby, the best thing to do is get a little background information and then see a few matches for yourself.
How to Play Rugby – The Basics
The object of the game of rugby is to score as many points as possible within the time limits of the match. Whoever has the most points at the end of the match is the winner. Rugby is played with a ball that is similar to an American football, but it is larger and not as pointy on the ends. Each team in rugby union rules has 15 players.
There are basically two ways to score points in the game of rugby: scoring a try or kicking a goal. A try nets the highest points in a rugby game at 5, and it is scored when an offensive player is able to touch the ball down inside the goal line of the opposing team.
A goal can be made in any one of three different ways: conversion, drop kick (or drop goal) and penalty kick (or penalty goal).
> The conversion comes after a successful try, and it is worth 2 points. Similar to the extra point in American football, a conversion must make it through the goal posts to be good.
> A drop kick or drop goal is somewhat similar to a field goal in American football. Like the field goal, it is worth 3 points. Unlike the field goal, a drop goal can be kicked from anywhere and at any time during the game. It is trickier also, in that the player must drop the ball and then kick it at the moment that it bounces up off of the ground.
> As its name suggests, the penalty kick or penalty goal is awarded to one team by the referee after the other team commits a rule infraction. A penalty kick is worth 3 points. It can be completed from a stationary position or as a drop kick.
A rugby game – or match, as it is more appropriately called – is played for 80 minutes, with a 10-minute half time period separating two 40-minute halves. A referee runs the rugby match with the help of two assistance referees or touch judges. TV games may also have a video referee to help with close decisions on a try or dropped goal.
A normal rugby pitch is 100 meters long or less with an in-goal area at either end. The in-goal area is at least 10 meters and not more than 22 meters long. The width of the rugby pitch can vary but cannot be more than 70 meters wide. The goal posts are two H-shaped posts placed at either end of the pitch. They are placed in the exact center of the goal line, and the crossbar on the post is 3 meters from the ground.