Rugby football

Last June, Fran and I went to Ireland with the Los Alamos Women's Rugby Team. We were unfamiliar with the sport. Very soon, it became an exciting one to watch.

To the uninitiated, Rugby looks like confused, mass mayhem. It isn't. But it is vastly different from most of the sports played in the United States.

To begin, there are three types of Rugby Football, union, league and sevens. The last refers to the number of players each team fields. The other two types field teams of fifteen. The ladies were playing league.

Most sports have rules. Rugby has LAWS. Rugby is a rough sport. Bruises and scrapes are normal. Padding is forbidden by the laws. Protection is allowed for the ears. Some players wear what looks like a shower cap for this. Unlike American football (hereinafter referred to as football), rugby does not permit a forward pass. If you watch a rugby match, you will see that most of the players carry the ball in a two handed grip in front of them. This allows them to pass the ball to a team mate beside or behind them if they are about to be or are being tackled.

The rugby pitch (field) is similar in size to a football field. It is 100 meters (a little more than 109 yards) long and 69 meters (a little more than 75 yards) wide. The goals are also similar to those in football. Another difference is the goals are set on the touch line (goal line) instead of behind it.

The game starts with the traditional coin toss to determine the receiving team and kick off. Difference: the ball is laid on the ground, no holder. Any player on the team may kick the ball on kick off. The kick has to travel at least 10 meters (about 11 yards) and remain in bounds. The kicking can, if their forwards are fast enough, grab the ball after it grounds and it remains in play. If the receiving team gets the ball, it also remain

s in play.

There are very few stops to a rugby match. The action is more or less continuous and the players cover a lot of ground. When the action stops, there is usually a line out or a scrum. A scrum is the photo on the upper right. The one below is a throw in after a line out (out of bounds). The ball is thrown in by one of the team's hookers (one of the rugby team positions) and both teams try to catch it. In some cases the receivers will jump for the ball. But lifting them to gain advantage of height is permitted.

The scrum occurs after a player loses the ball, usually by being tackled. If the opposing team recovers the ball, play continues. If not, the referee calls a scrum. In the scrum, the opposing forwards line up literally head to head. The ball is rolled between them and they push each other while team mates try to get the ball and pass it back to someone with room to run.

A goal is called a try. The ball must be grounded behind the touch line while it is in possession of the scoring team. A touch is five points. There is a conversion kick worth two points.

Why am I nattering on about this? Because the Olympics have decided to make Rugby Seven part of the 2016 Olympic Games. Both men's and women's teams will play for the gold. Rugby has been dominated by the United Kingdom and its former colonies. But there are nations that are up and coming. Tonga is one and Japan another. Both have had teams qualify for the World Cup. So has Argentina.

I am hoping to see a team from the United States in the 2016 competition.

If you have not seen a rugby game, they are fairly easy to find. Most large cities have several. Ask around. I think that Los Alamos proves that you do not have to be a large city to field a pretty respectable rugby team. The New Mexico ladies were undefeated in Ireland.