Facts On Rugby.

"RUGBY IS A BEASTLY GAME PLAYED BY GENTLEMEN" -
henry blaha

Overview:

Rugby is a free-flowing game that features a combination of strength, speed and strategy to move a ball into an opponents territory. Rugby is a full-contact sport yet players wear little-or no protective gear. Rugby evolved from football (i.e. soccer) and is often called the ‘game played in heaven’.

The game of football which was played at Rugby School between 1750 and 1823 permitted handling of the ball, but no-one was allowed to run with it in their hands towards the opposition's goal. There was no fixed limit to the number of players per side and sometimes there were hundreds taking part in a kind of enormous rolling maul. The innovation of running with the ball was introduced some time between 1820 and 1830. William Webb Ellis has been credited with breaking the local rules by running forwards with the ball in a game in 1823. Shortly after this the Victorian mind turned to establishing written rules for the sports which had earlier just involved local agreements, and boys from Rugby School produced the first written rules for their version of the sport in 1845.

Scoring:

There are 4 ways in which a team may score points in rugby:

• Try - Five points when the ball is touched to the ground (”grounded”) in the opponents end zone.
• Conversion - Two points for a kick through the uprights after a try is scored. The kick is taken on a line (parallel to the touch-line) which passes through the place where the ball was grounded. Thus, grounding the ball “between the posts” makes for an easier conversion attempt than if the ball is grounded near the side-line.
• Drop Goal - Three points for ‘drop kicking’ the ball through the opponent’s uprights at anytime during play.
• Penalty Kick - Three points for place-kicking the ball through the opponent’s uprights following an infraction by the opposition. Penalty kicks must be taken from the point of the infraction.

Positions:

1. Prop
2. Hooker
3. Prop
(All the front row of the scrum)

4. & 5. Lock forward
(second row of the scrum)

6. & 7. Flankers

8. Number 8 - usually the first link to the backs

9. Scrum Half

10. Fly Half

11. & 14. Wingers

12. & 13. Centers

15. Full back

-end of part 1-

*to be continued later...