What the Ruck?

Tim's back, this time to set the record straight on rugby...

I'm loving the confusion over the great English game which is rugby. Here is my American’s Guide to Rugby.

Rugby officially started in 1845 when 3 boys published some written rules for a game which had been played in England for a couple of centuries. The boys were from Rugby School (less than 30 miles from Birmingham) and that's why it was called rugby.

Rugby came across to the US of A and the first match was played at Harvard in 1874. Eighteen years later a sub-game, based on rugby, was spawned which we now know as American Football. Why did rugby decline and American Football take over? Your guess is as good as mine but perhaps there weren’t enough pads and passages of play lasting more than 3 minutes in rugby!

Rugby played today has two halves of 40 minutes (yes there are no timeouts in that time, a whole 40 minutes of continuous play) with a ball a very similar shape to that of your American Football, minus the big stitching. There are 15 players on each team and although it’s a very physical game there are few serious injuries. Rugby players are that hardcore they had to introduce a rule whereby they must leave the pitch when they were bleeding as they were just playing on regardless. They are now swapped out for a ‘blood replacement’ and they come back as soon as the flow is stemmed!

The only other main differences I know of (I don’t really know much about American Football though!) is that in rugby you can’t pass the ball forwards and you have to touch the ball down to score a try.

For those of you not following the Rugby World Cup (RWC), USA was in the same group as England. For a non-professional team they put up a gallant fight with a final score of 28-10 to England. They were also in the same group as South Africa so at least you guys can say you played both the World Cup finalists (and lost!).

The USA, Tongan born!, centre Salesi Sika is one to watch as he is definitely one of the fastest rugby players I have seen. He can run the 100m in 10.5 seconds which is almost as fast as me!

That’s it for today’s lesson. Watch the final on Saturday for more of the ultimate game and I’ll watch Superbowl XLII in Feb for some comparisons!

COME ON ENGLAND!