When you’re in Scotland and you say “football” they expect you’re talking about “soccer”. If you see a kid tossing around a ball that looks like a chubby American football but without pointy ends it’s really a rugby ball.
Rugby is one of the national sports of any country that used to be owned or influenced by England. One way to tell that the Revolutionary War was a real rejection of all things British is that we totally invented our own set of national games.
Instead of baseball, Scottish (and other British) kids play “rounders” which is kind of similar but with a really short bat.
(Don’t confuse it with “cricket” which is played with a flat bat and is really different.)
I visited a Boy Scout troop one Friday night when they were having game night. One of the most popular choices was rounders, another was rugby.
They also played a “sumo wrestling” game, a candle-putting-out game, a crazy rope swing event and practiced gymnastics. It was wild and crazy.
Sunday I went to a “Sevens” Rugby tournament in the rain (because it rains a lot in Scotland almost nothing is ever canceled due to rain). A Sevens tournament is a modified rugby game with seven players on each team played in two seven minute halves. They start in the morning and play each other in rotation until the finals. Scotland got eliminated in the second-to-last round against South Africa. England lost to New Zealand in the finals. This year New Zealand was the championship team.
So what is rugby?
Rugby is a game for the truly tough. No time-outs. No helmets. No pads. No quarterback. No separate teams for offense and defense. Teammates have to pass the ball behind them (never forwards) to avoid being tackled. The tackled player has to shove the ball to another teammate to keep the game going. Being down, or having the ball hit the ground does not stop the play. It’s rough and tumble all the way, with people crashing to the ground and climbing all over each other to get the ball. There are leagues for kids, leagues for women, leagues for professionals. Regular rugby has 15 players on a side and takes much longer.
Players can kick the ball forward, I even saw some players kick forward and catch their own kick to keep moving up. Players can intentionally kick the ball out of bounds.
Crossing the goal line with the ball and touching it to the end zone gives your team 5 points. If you’re slick you can boot the ball into the end zone and chase and fall on it.
Then, for 2 more points, a team member has to kick the ball through the uprights from a spot straight out in the field from the point of the downed ball. So if a player leaps across the end zone near a sideline the kicker has to kick from about 20 meters out but along that sideline. Players try to down the ball in the center of the end zone to give the kicker his best chance. He has to drop-kick the ball, there is no place kicker, no holder.
The coolest move is when your team in-bounds the ball after some kind of penalty or out of bounds kick (not sure about this) and the players lift one guy in the air so he can catch the ball over the heads of the opponents. He then tosses it down to one of his guys.
Rugby is known for a huddle-like formation called a “scrum” where the players of both teams link arms and can only use their legs to squirt the ball out to one of their own guys.
Here’s how the Scouts played rugby.
Here’s how Scotland Sevens played rugby.
Well, now that I’m inside and dry, it’s haggis for dinner.
Go Scotland!
Ann
Questions:
1. Where was Rugby invented?
2. What were the teams in the Emirates Airlines Sevens Tournament held May 31 and June 1?
3. Where is Emirates Airlines headquarters?
4. Which came first, Rounders or Baseball?
5. What’s the weather forecast for Edinburgh, Scotland?
