I'm looking to play soon for the first time, any advice?

Question

I live in the US, western Massachusetts to be specific. The county is starting a u19 team for kids in high school. I am 17 yrs old, 5' 8", and around 125-130 pounds. What position do you think i would be best at? I currently am only playing football (soccer) but i need something to do in the spring for fun and i love rugby. I always wanted to join a team. please any advice would help so much. thanks

Answer 1

Depending on your speed I would say the following:

Quick with reasonable hands (catching ability) - winger

Quick and good hands - outside centre or fullback

Stocky, reasonable pace and like tackling - inside centre

Reasonably quick, like tackling and mobile (able to keep running all game) - flanker

Reasonably quick, have a good pass & kick, can read the game well - half-back or flyhalf.

You can probably play most positions with the exceptions of the front and second rows due to your size and weight although you could give 2nd row a go with your height (you would be easy to lift in lineouts with your weight).

Answer 2

look just come to australia and play rugby,  league its the best rugby. by the way tell all americans that australia is not just a desert with kangaroos jumpin around, its nicer than america so ha????!!!!!

Answer 3

Turn up to practice .... tell it like it is .......and take it from there.

Good luck.

Answer 4

This all depends on how much experience you have had - if none then I would definitely suggest that you start as a winger; this is the easiest position on the field to learn, and is a really good way of watching what is going on as you have a good view of the whole pitch. Your build sounds ideal for this, you need to be fairly small, and fast, and fitness is something to work on as you have a long way to run to the try line! You could really play anywhere in the back line, and the ideal position would depend on your individual strengths. The centres need to be strong on ball-handling in small spaces, and tough enough to deal with a lot of contact. The half-backs (scrum half and fly half) are the decisive figures on the pitch: they dictate moves and tell everyone where to be - scrummie is a good position for someone fairly small, but it is a very responsible place to be, and you need to be prepared for A LOT of tackles by players considerably larger than you. The wingers and fullback work together as the final line of defence, and if you are interested in a mixture of attack and defence then this is a good place to be; the fullback needs to be able to kick and catch high balls. You potentially could play flanker, but I would suggest that you work on bulking up first, as your current weight might make it difficult to make a lot of impact in breakdowns.