Rugby for Dummies 3rd Edition (North American Edition) - Softcover

Brown, Mathew; Guthrie, Patrick; Growden, Greg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1118043324 ISBN 13: 9781118043325

Publisher: For Dummies, 2011

Synopsis

The official guide to rugby in North America, revised and updated

Rugby For Dummies is the guide to rugby in North America, endorsed by USA Rugby and Rugby Canada, the official regulating bodies for the sport. It gives you a look at how rugby is played, offers strategies for winning, and covers every level of the sport, from high school to college (including women's rugby) to the international leagues. Plus, this new edition addresses changes to the rules of rugby, includes new rugby player bios, and looks at rugby's upcoming return to the Olympic games.

Inside you'll find easy-to-understand explanations of rugby rules and positions, plus in-depth lessons on skills, fitness training, and winning techniques. Add in entertaining stories from rugby in North America and around the world, and you've got the definitive book on rugby!

• Covers every level of the sport
• Includes the latest rules and information on rugby
• Discusses rugby's return to the Olympic games

Whether you're new to rugby or a scrum veteran, this friendly guide is for you.

About this title

About the Author

Mathew Brown is the producer and host of Rugby World on Fox Soccer Plus. Patrick Guthrie is the Director of Broadcast and Sports Development for the City of Glendale, CO. Greg Growden is a rugby correspondent and author of Gold, Mud 'n' Guts.

From the Back Cover

Learn to:

• Master rugby's basic rules
• Devise winning strategies as a player or for a team
• Appreciate rugby's colorful history
• Understand the game at local, national, and international levels

Explore all of rugby's action and excitement with this fun and friendly guide

Whether you're new to rugby or a scrum veteran, this book is for you. Inside you'll find easy-to-understand explanations of the game's rules and positions, plus in-depth lessons on skills, fitness training, and winning techniques. Add in entertaining rugby stories from North America and around the world, and you've got the definitive book on rugby!

• Understand the essentials get to know the pitch, all the positions on a side, and the game's scoring system
• Examine the game in action figure out the difference between a tackle, ruck, or maul, appreciate the art of scrummaging, and learn to love the line-out
• Get equipped grab everything you need to play, from the ball and tee to your jersey and shorts
• Develop winning skills explore the basics of how to run, pass, kick, and tackle, and check out tested training tips
• Cheer on the sport around the world thrill to the Rugby World Cup, and get into the game at every level, from high-school heroes to professional superstars
• Find out what it takes to become a coach or referee take your love of the game to the next level, and investigate how to get certified as a coach or ref
• Stay on top of the latest rugby news get the scoop on how you can watch matches on TV and online, and read up about the best rugby websites and books

Open the book and find:

• What the lines on the pitch mean
• How to recognize the referee's signals
• The rules of engagement in a scrum
• Ways you can improve your passes and kicks
• Tactics that will help your team to victory
• Great Rugby World Cup moments
• Exciting rugby anecdotes from around the globe
• How you can get involved with rugby, as a player or fan

From the Inside Flap

Learn to:

• Master rugby's basic rules
• Devise winning strategies as a player or for a team
• Appreciate rugby's colorful history
• Understand the game at local, national, and international levels

Explore all of rugby's action and excitement with this fun and friendly guide

Whether you're new to rugby or a scrum veteran, this book is for you. Inside you'll find easy-to-understand explanations of the game's rules and positions, plus in-depth lessons on skills, fitness training, and winning techniques. Add in entertaining rugby stories from North America and around the world, and you've got the definitive book on rugby!

• Understand the essentials — get to know the pitch, all the positions on a side, and the game's scoring system
• Examine the game in action — figure out the difference between a tackle, ruck, or maul, appreciate the art of scrummaging, and learn to love the line-out
• Get equipped — grab everything you need to play, from the ball and tee to your jersey and shorts
• Develop winning skills — explore the basics of how to run, pass, kick, and tackle, and check out tested training tips
• Cheer on the sport around the world — thrill to the Rugby World Cup, and get into the game at every level, from high-school heroes to professional superstars
• Find out what it takes to become a coach or referee — take your love of the game to the next level, and investigate how to get certified as a coach or ref
• Stay on top of the latest rugby news — get the scoop on how you can watch matches on TV and online, and read up about the best rugby websites and books

Open the book and find:

• What the lines on the pitch mean
• How to recognize the referee's signals
• The rules of engagement in a scrum
• Ways you can improve your passes and kicks
• Tactics that will help your team to victory
• Great Rugby World Cup moments
• Exciting rugby anecdotes from around the globe
• How you can get involved with rugby, as a player or fan

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Rugby For Dummies

By Mathew Brown Patrick Guthrie Greg Growden

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-1180-4332-5

Chapter One

Rugby's Beginnings, Allure, and a Basic Overview

In This Chapter

* Exploring rugby's illustrious past

* Understanding how the game is played

* Boning up on rugby's laws

* Going around the world with rugby

* Calling the shots with coaches and referees

* Staying in touch with the rugby world

Why do millions of fans around the globe watch 30 players chase an oval ball on a field of grass as if the world would end if they missed one pass, kick, or tackle? Because they're hooked on rugby — a game of passion that's full of action, excitement, and beauty, as well as unpredictable moments and dramatic resolutions on the field, and unique camaraderie off the field. When played by the best exponents of the game, rugby satisfies the soul like nothing else.

Rugby's Roots — the Birth of the Game

The game gets its name from Rugby, a town in England's Midlands, where it was first played at Rugby School. The legend goes that in 1823 a schoolboy by the name of William Webb Ellis first picked up the ball in the middle of a soccer game and ran with it, thereby breaking the old rules and setting the stage for an entirely new game (see the following section for the creation of this myth).

What is true is that the game was popularized and the rules codified at Rugby School. The school's alumni spread the game throughout Britain to other schools and universities, like Oxford and Cambridge, and eventually to the far reaches of the British Empire.

The mythical pick-up of William Webb Ellis

William Webb Ellis was indeed a student at Rugby School from 1816 to 1825, and then he went on to study at Oxford before joining the clergy. He died in 1872 and is buried in Menton, in the South of France. But his being a student at Rugby School in 1823 is about as much historical fact as can be determined about him regarding his invention of the game of rugby. In reality, four years after his death the myth was created for a specific purpose — so that the upper classes in England could justify their control of the game. Around the time the story was concocted, rugby was in the throes of a great battle between amateurism and professionalism that would eventually split the sport into two different codes.

Ellis's posthumous anointment as father of the game was a significant event in that battle, and his name lives on today as the embodiment of the sport's crowning achievement, the William Webb Ellis Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the quadrennial World Cup (see Chapter 13 for more about the World Cup).

A century of amateurism

From its beginnings at English public schools, rugby was definitely an elitist pursuit that actively discouraged and prohibited the payment of players. In 1895, after the Rugby Football Union (RFU) refused to allow clubs to compensate players for missing work to play the game, 22 clubs broke away from the union to form the Northern Football Union. This forerunner of professional rugby league (a similar game but with only 13 players) eventually adopted its own set of rules and began paying players — something rugby union wouldn't do for another century.

Up until the 1990s, rugby union was a strictly amateur sport. While there were obviously numerous cases of cushy jobs, special treatment, and under-the-table payments, rugby administrators in both hemispheres diligently ferreted out cases of direct pay-for-play offers and banned those who were caught. Making the jump to rugby league meant no further involvement in rugby union at any level.

The fact that this prohibition against remuneration outlasted even the Olympic movement's similar rule is a testament to the amount of control the game's conservative governors exerted over a worldwide sport. By 1995, the pressures of money and television had become too great and, under threat of losing the best players to league or upstart union competitions, the powers that be capitulated and the sport entered a new era of professionalism.

How the Game Is Played

At first glance, rugby can look very complicated. The rugby field is covered in a myriad of lines and populated by 30 players running around and performing seemingly disjointed actions while wearing a variety of accoutrements. Don't fear, though — a little bit of explanation will clear up exactly where they are, what they're doing, and what they're wearing.

The field

TECHNICAL STUFF

Rugby is played on a grass field measuring 100 meters long by no more than 70 meters wide (109.4 yards long by 76.5 yards wide). At each end of the field there are goalposts on the goal line and an in-goal area that varies by venue but is usually between 10 and 22 meters long (10.9 yards to 24.1 yards). (All measurements in this book and in rugby are given in meters.)

Lots of lines are marked on a rugby field. The most important ones are the following:

  Goal lines: Players have to reach these lines in order to score.

  22-meter lines: These lines are vital, because they influence where play restarts after the ball is kicked out from behind them.

  Halfway line: This is where play starts after every score.

We talk more about the field — and all its other lines — in Chapter 2.

The scoring

RUGBY JARGON

The aim of rugby is to score more points than the opposition. This is done in four different ways:

  Try: The most valuable play is to score a try, which means touching the ball down in the opponent's in-goal area or on their goal line. Doing so is worth five points and earns that team the right to attempt a conversion kick.

  Conversion kick: This kick is worth an additional two points. The conversion kick is taken from a spot in line with where the ball was originally grounded, so scoring as close to the posts as possible is best.

  Penalty kick: Penalties for various infractions can be used to take a kick at goal, which is worth three points.

  Dropped goal: A dropped goal, which occurs when the player drops the ball on the ground and then kicks it just as it bounces, is worth three points if it goes through the uprights.

We cover scoring in greater detail in Chapter 2.

The gear

In the old days, rugby players wore boots, socks, jerseys, and maybe a bit of tape. The laws have changed over the years to allow much more safety gear to be worn. In the modern era, seeing players wearing padded headgear, compression shorts, light padding under their jerseys to protect shoulders and ribs, and, of course, mouth guards is common. Chapter 3 lets you know what's legal to wear and what's not.

Understanding the Essentials of the Game

Like most sports that didn't originate in North America, rugby can be difficult to comprehend at first glance because of the large number of players involved, the seemingly random calls of the referee, and the wide variety of strategies employed by different teams to score points and get wins. To help you begin your journey toward a complete understanding of the game, in the following sections we outline who all the players are, explain what the referee is generally looking for during the match, and spell out the basic skills required to be successful on the pitch.

Puzzling out the positions

RUGBY JARGON

A rugby team has 15 positions. Each one wears a specific number and has individual responsibilities:

  1 and 3 are the props

  2 is the hooker

  4 and 5 are the locks

  6 and 7 are the flankers

  8 is, conveniently enough, the eightman

RUGBY JARGON

This group is collectively referred to as the pack or the forwards.

A rugby team has another group as well — the backs or back line:

  9 is the scrumhalf

  10 is the flyhalf

  11 and 14 are the wings

  12 and 13 are the inside and outside centers

  15 is the fullback

To get a feel for what each player is charged with doing on the rugby pitch, see Chapter 4.

Grasping the laws of the game

Rugby is governed by laws, not rules. The laws of the game are designed to produce an entertaining and free-flowing contest for possession in an attempt to score the most points. Twenty-two laws cover all aspects of the field, the players, and the match officials. The referee, helped by two touch judges, is the sole judge of fact and law during a match.

The laws are constantly evolving and are the same all over the world, wherever the game is played. Chapter 5 details where the laws come from and also shows pictures of all the different referee signals to help you figure out what's going on the very first time you watch a match.

In general the laws governing play are straightforward about what's allowed, but three crucial parts can be somewhat confusing: the tackle situation, advantage, and offsides:

  In a nutshell, when a tackle is made in rugby the requirements are that the tackler releases the tackled player, who then releases the ball so that players who are on their feet can use it.

  Advantage simply means that when one team makes an error the other team can try to capitalize on it, instead of the referee immediately stopping the action. If the players can't capitalize on the error, play restarts where the original mistake took place.

  Specific offsides laws exist for different phases of play, but essentially players can't be involved if they're in front of a teammate who last played the ball or are behind the ball when the opposition has it.

Chapter 6 explicates all the intricacies of the game and will have you understanding like an expert in no time.

Scoping out skills, tactics, and training

The four basic skills necessary for any rugby player to excel at the game are running, passing, kicking, and tackling. In Chapter 10 we explain how to execute each skill, including doing the goose step with ball in hand, throwing the cut-out pass, making a grubber kick, and pulling off a ball-and-all tackle. (And while these names may seem slightly humorous to you now, when they're explained within the context of play they'll make perfect sense.)

Plenty of rugby teams are filled with great athletes who never get to hoist trophies in triumph, either because they don't have the right game plan or they aren't employing the correct tactics in accordance with their abilities. Rugby coaches have lots of options open to them as far as strategy is concerned, but the most important thing for them to do if they want to win is to select an overall structure that fits their players' strengths. Either that or go out and get players who can play the type of game the coach envisions! Chapter 11 looks at the various ways to attack and defend in order to create a winning team.

Rugby has always been a physical game, but since the advent of the professional era the strength and speed of the participants have grown by leaps and bounds. That growth has been achieved not just through more time in the weight room and on the track but also by adhering to better diets and mental preparation regimes. Chapter 12 features all the necessary elements to get ready to play the game, including warming up, stretching, developing a rugby fitness program, and managing the intake of food and fluids.

Rugby's a Worldwide Game

Rugby is played all over the planet by everyone from little kids to millionaire athletes. What binds them together in one collective embrace is passion for the game. More than any other sport, rugby is about tradition, lifestyle, and a noble ethos. Whether you're interested in watching the professional game abroad or playing for your local third-division club, rugby offers an entertaining spectacle or years of athletic enjoyment that can't be matched.

An international affair

The Rugby World Cup is a relatively new tournament, having made its debut in 1987. Now, the tournament is by far the most important event in the minds of fans — and of national unions, who go all out to win it every four years. So far, only New Zealand, Australia (twice), South Africa (twice), and England have managed to lift the William Webb Ellis trophy. Chapter 13 delves deeply into the origins and history of the World Cup (including sections on the U.S.'s and Canada's participation), plus gives loads of info on all the other International Rugby Board (IRB) World Cup competitions, from Women's to Sevens.

The World Cup may be a newcomer on the global sporting scene, but rugby's international tradition goes back to 1871, when England and Scotland squared off in the first test match (which is when the national teams of two countries play an official game). The international calendar is chock-full of exciting action from both hemispheres, with the Six Nations Championship and Tri Nations Series supplemented by the top countries taking annual tours to play on each other's home turf. The interprovincial and provincial scenes are every bit as entertaining, with Super Rugby, Heineken Cup, Magners League, Aviva Premiership, Top 14, ITM Cup, and ABSA Currie Cup providing nearly year-round action. Chapter 14 gives an overview of all these international, interprovincial, and provincial tournaments.

North America gets into the action

North Americans are relative newcomers to the sport of rugby, but both Canada and the United States are passionate about the game. In Chapter 15 we provide the lowdown on their respective histories and detail how the national governing bodies are organized on both sides of the border.

Before you can earn your international call-up, you need to play some club rugby. In Chapter 16, we survey the amateur club game across North America. Over the past 15 years, the most encouraging development in North American rugby has been the rapid growth of the sport at the youth, high school, and collegiate levels, a trend we examine in Chapter 17.

Coaching and Refereeing

Other than the players themselves, the two next most important jobs in rugby are the referee and the coach. Neither is an easy assignment, nor one to be taken lightly. In our experience, coaching can be one of the most satisfying (and sometimes frustrating) things you can do.

COACH TIP

Nothing compares to the feeling of watching your charges artfully deploy your brilliant game plan with devastating effect, complete with the knowledge that you were the one who devised and implemented the whole plan of attack! When that happens, the unavoidable pains of being a coach seem a distant memory — at least until the next training session.

Chapter 18 talks about what it takes to be a good coach and outlines the various other support roles available to those who want to be involved in the sport. Chapter 19 details the different procedures to become a coach in the U.S. and Canada, and provides some background about what doing so at various levels of the game entails.

The most important person at any rugby match is the referee — without their presence, the game would evolve into a giant wrestling match and tempers would certainly flare out of control. Although the referee is always respected by the players on the field (and if not, he's got the power to effect change), the job is still a tough one. The laws of the game don't protect him from criticism by spectators or, at higher levels, from media scrutiny. In other words, refereeing isn't for everyone, but it is for a select knowledgeable and confident few who dearly love the game as much as, if not more than, the players they adjudicate. Chapter 20 provides the pathway to taking up the whistle in Canada and the United States.

Keeping Informed about the Game

Rugby used to be a purely local affair, but in today's globally interconnected, media-driven world watching the sport wherever you are — whether you live in a rugby-mad country or not — is possible. Chapter 21 takes all the guesswork out of the process for you with a handy guide to watching rugby on TV. Chapter 22 delves into the Internet and provides a plethora of Web sites to keep you up to date on your favorite country, competition, team, or player. Plus, we list our favorite books and magazines that will give you the real flavor of the sport. We also give you advice about how to actually go see a rugby match in person, where you'll be able to soak up the positive atmosphere that makes rugby such a unique endeavor.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Rugby For Dummiesby Mathew Brown Patrick Guthrie Greg Growden Copyright © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission of John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1118043324
• ISBN 13: 9781118043325
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 384