What is the sport Rugby and how do you play it?

Question

What is the sport Rugby and how do you play it?

Answer 1

A bit like your Gridiron nonsense, only loads tougher.

Players don't need to rest every 5 seconds or dress like they are going out to ride motorbikes

Answer 2

your kidding arent ya?

Answer 3

dont be homophobic if you go to a rugby game

Answer 4

Have you watched  a game?

Answer 5

Complex question.  Try here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_union...  You might like to proceed to YouTube.

Note there are two different flavours Rugby League and Rugby Union.  Union is the one that is discussed in this thread and is the original and more popular version.

Answer 6

Think of American football with no pads and no forward passes. There are a lot of other differences, but that will put you in the right frame of mind, anyway.

In rugby union, tries (the gridiron equvialent of a touchdown) are worth 5 points. Conversions (kicks after the try) are worth 2 points, and goals (the equivalent of a field goal) are worth 3 points. You can advance the ball by tossing it backwards to a teammate or kicking it downfield. Ball carriers are stopped by tackling, and when a player is down, he has to release the ball as soon as he can. In union play, possession is contested on every tackle. The "ruck" that happens after the tackle thus takes the place of "downs" in gridiron football. Where gridiron is a yardage game, rugby union is a possession game.

Rubgy league is a little more like gridiron football, in that a team gets a set of six tackles before they have to surrender possession to the opponent. Point values for scoring are different in league play, too.

I'd suggest following that link that the previous poster gave. Also, "Rugby for Dummies" is a good resource book that taught me a lot. If you have a satellite dish, you can order Setanta Sports and see a few rugby games every week ... there's no better way to learn than to actually see the game being played.