What do forwards in rugby do?

Question

well my friend brought me to one of his pick up games and his coach was there and said i would be ( at least from the looks of me) a good forward, so i was wondering what exactly the the forward position do?

btw i'm 6 feet 3 inches tall and i weigh 235 pounds. i'm also 18 years old.

Answer 1

You have the forwards and the backs. It is very hard to explain on a computer if you have no knowledge of the game, but the forwards are normally the bigger players and support the backs. They also take part in the Scrum, and Lineouts.

6 ft 3 and 235 would be a good weight and size for a lock (second row) or flankers/number 8, are you 235 pounds of muscle or fat?

Im 6ft 1 and 212 pounds of muscle, and play Openside flanker. If your strong and not 235 pounds of fat you would be a fantastic forward! And forwards are by the far the best positions on the pitch.

Try out anyway its a fantastic sport

Answer 2

Forwards do a lot of the hard work around the pitch.  There are different classifications of forwards, although role wise you could break them into tight forwards and loose forwards. Although termed forwards, this is often a misnomer as the forwards operate in quite a defensive role, much more so than the backs, who are normally fleet footed and who normally score all the extravagent running rugby tries that make the highlights reels.  

Depending on the position you play, your role as forward would differ.  Based on your physical description you would most likely play at lock, flank or 8th man.  All of these players will be involved in jumping for the ball at the lineout, although in lesser experienced teams, this role normally falls to the locks who jump at the front of the lineout (the loosies normally stand at the back of the lineout and in lesser teams the hooker can't throw accurately there so they don't get involved in the jumping, although they'll help in the lifting).  

At scrum time the roles differ.  The locks are often called the engine room of the scrum and a lot of the power of the scrum come from them. The flankers help the props by adding power behind them.  In the scrum, on attack the 8th man controls the ball when it comes out the back and often will pick up directly and run with the ball.  On defense the blindside flanker, has a more defensive role and needs to tackle the opposing 8th man/scrumhalf if they run from the scrum.  

In open play, the forwards tend to follow the ball around the park and make sure that the opposition doesn't steal back possession.  On attack, when a player is tackled the opposition, if on their feet, can try to pick up the ball.  The loose forwards generally get to the tackle first and clean out (tackle) the oppostion who are trying to steal back the ball.  The tight five are there to add muscle, especially agains the opposing forward who are going to try to drive over the ruck and thereby steal back possession, or to pick and drive (pick up the ball and run forwards).  On defense the forwards defend the against the pick and drive and also try to steal bak the ball at the tackle.  And excellent example of this is Richie McCaw of New Zealand.  He is a flanker.  Flankers who specialise in stealing back the ball are generally shorter than the other loosies and locks (make it easier for them to get down to the ball) but are very quick and strong, especially strong upper body as they need to be able to rip the ball away from the opposition player.  The other forwards will try to steal back the ball by pushing the opponents backwards, walking until they are over the ball/the ball is on their side.

I hope this helped, rugby is a confusing game at first, but its an awesome game and I can't recommend it enough!