Rugby Rules?!

On Sunday, I went to my first rugby match. I met up with Brian, who arranged the excursion, and Laura at Paddington to catch a train to Reading. (Note to Lori: I got a mango fruit smoothie at the station that reminded me of you!) After an uneventful train ride and a slightly more eventful search for transportation to the stadium, we arrived at Madejski Stadium, home of the London Irish!

Established in 1898 for young Irishmen living in London, the London Irish Rugby Football Club now plays in the 12-team Guinness Premiership. Brian particuarly wanted to see a London Irish game because of Irish descent, and Laura's father actually holds an Irish passport. Me? People just think I'm Irish.

Our first stop was the team store. Laura and I were tempted by the cheap t-shirts on the children's rack, while Brian went all out and bought a team jersey. Feeling the team spirit, we went into the stadium and found our seats. It was opening seating on our side so we managed some pretty nice seats near midfield. In retrospect, we wished we had sat just a few rows lower so we could have been in the sunlight. The temperature difference was amazing.

Luckily, I had looked up a few of the rugby rules the night before so I did my best to explain them before the match. And things started making more sense once the match actually started. I wouldn't say I understood everything I saw, but I definitely knew when good things were happening for the Irish. Here's a brief photo tutorial of my rudimentary understanding of the rules of rugby:


This is a "scrum." A player on one of the teams gets to toss the ball into the scrum. The position of the ball is the line of "scrummage," and thus players on the other side are not allowed to cross line where the ball is at. Once the ball is at the back of the scrum, a player not part of it can pick up the ball and start moving forward with it. Unlike American football, the ball cannot be thrown forward, but it can be run or kicked forward.



This is a thrown-in. The team with possession tosses the ball overhead (much like in soccer) to the teammates. They have elaborate throw-in plays that remind me of basketball, except the part where they hoist people up into the air. Throw-ins are my favorite part of the game.

I don't have any pictures of a "touchdown," which literally involving touching the ball down past a certain line, because they happen very, very quickly. But here's a two-point conversion kick:



The place from which the conversion is attempted depends on where the touchdown was scored. Because scoring a touchdown up the middle is more difficult, the team gets an easier placement for the conversion. This particular attempt failed.

The Irish ultimately won the game 30-3. We all enjoyed the game so much that we're organizing a trip to another in April. Several of our classmates have expressed interest so hopefully we'll get another chance to cheer on the Irish!

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I've definitely fallen behind on my blogging, but I am determined to catch-up before I leave for spring break. Expect at least two more updates this week.