{"id":102994,"date":"2019-10-14T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/?p=102994"},"modified":"2019-10-13T16:14:41","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T23:14:41","slug":"20191014-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20191014-01\/?p=102994","title":{"rendered":"Rugby: The rules for the casual viewer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8220;minimum you need to know about a sport in order to watch a match and not be completely confused&#8221; mini-series continues with rugby, whose World Cup is currently under way.<\/p>\n<p>First of all, there are two flavors of rugby: Rugby league and rugby union. The one being contested at the World Cup right now is rugby union, and that&#8217;s the one I&#8217;ll cover here.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The playing area (<b>pitch<\/b>) has a lot of lines. Don&#8217;t worry about most of them. The <b>touch lines<\/b> run along the sides, <b>goal lines<\/b> are at the ends, and and <b>dead ball lines<\/b> are beyond the goal lines. The touch lines and dead ball lines form the playing boundary. The lines themselves are considered out of play.<\/li>\n<li>A team consists of 15 players, with 8 substitutions permitted. A player who is replaced may not return, with exceptions for temporary injuries.<\/li>\n<li>The game consists of two 40-minute halves, plus stoppage time. If time expires while play is active, the play is allowed to run its course, plus any penalties that may ensue. Games can end in a draw.<\/li>\n<li>The team with the ball may run with it or kick it. The ball may be thrown sideways or backward, but not forward.<\/li>\n<li>The defense stops the advance by tackling the player with the ball. Players who jump into the air and catch the ball are safe from being tackled until they land.<\/li>\n<li>The offense may not obstruct the defense&#8217;s path to the ball. (No blocking.)<\/li>\n<li>A tackled ball carrier must get rid of the ball immediately.<\/li>\n<li>A ball carrier on the ground (not yet tackled) must get up or get rid of the ball.<\/li>\n<li>If three or more players contest a ball while standing, it is a <b>maul<\/b>. If three or more players contest a ball on the ground, it is a <b>ruck<\/b>, and the ball must be played with the feet. In both cases, players must remain standing.<\/li>\n<li>A player who announces &#8220;<b>mark<\/b>&#8221; and catches the ball behind their own 22-meter line is awarded a free kick from the point of catch. (Marks may not be called during the kick-off.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Scoring<\/b>: There are two basic categories of scoring: The <b>try<\/b> and the <b>kick<\/b>. Kicks must go through the goal posts.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>try<\/b>: 5 points for touching the ball to the ground beyond the opponent&#8217;s goal line. After a try, the scoring team attempts a conversion kick.<\/li>\n<li><b>conversion kick<\/b>: 2 points, taken in line with the point the try was made, from any distance. (Tries closer to the center of the goal line therefore make for easier conversions.)<\/li>\n<li><b>drop kick<\/b>: 3 points for kicks from the field.<\/li>\n<li><b>penalty kick<\/b>: 3 points for kicks from a penalty kick.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The line-out<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If the ball or ball carrier touches the ground out of bounds, a <b>line-out<\/b> is awarded to the team that did not last touch the ball.<\/li>\n<li>The position of the line-out is generally the point the ball left the field, with adjustments if it is close to a goal line. Some situations result in a line-out at the point of kick.<\/li>\n<li>Both teams line up perpendicular to the touch line. The defense may not line up more players than the throwing team.<\/li>\n<li>The rules on where players may stand are complicated. Let&#8217;s just assume that they are standing in the right place.<\/li>\n<li>The ball is thrown perpendicular to the touch line.<\/li>\n<li>Players are permitted to lift teammates to reach the ball.<\/li>\n<li>A team may perform a quick throw-in if the defense is slow to form a line-out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The scrum<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <b>scrum<\/b> is perhaps one of the iconic elements of rugby. It is used to restart play after a minor infringement, such as throwing the ball forward. It is also used if the ball is trapped in a maul or ruck.<\/li>\n<li>Eight players from each team form a carefully architected huddle, and the team awarded the ball rolls it into the <b>tunnel<\/b>.<\/li>\n<li>Each team attempts to push the other team backward so that a designated player (the <b>hooker<\/b>) can kick the ball backward to a teammate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Fouls<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fouls include obstruction, violent play, intentionally <b>collapsing<\/b> a maul or ruck, and improper tackles.<\/li>\n<li>The <b>offside<\/b> rule is complicated, but basically you may not be ahead of the ball and participate in the play. For a maul, ruck, or scrum, players who are not contesting the ball must remain behind those who are.<\/li>\n<li>The referee may decline to enforce a foul if they feel the offended team has the advantage.<\/li>\n<li>When a penalty kick is awarded, the opposing team must yield 10 meters.<\/li>\n<li>A team may elect to restart with a scrum rather than a penalty kick.<\/li>\n<li>For serious fouls, the referee issues a <b>yellow card<\/b>, and the player must sit out for ten minutes, leaving the team shorthanded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The open-field portion of rugby is pretty easy to figure out after watching it for a little while. The most confusing part is when there&#8217;s a crowd around the ball, because you can&#8217;t see what&#8217;s going on or what they&#8217;re trying to do.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What you need to know as an observer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":111744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-102994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oldnewthing","tag-non-computer"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>What you need to know as an observer.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}