Semi-OT: USA Rugby Today

[fnordcircle]

Thanks to everyone in this thread who took the time to answer our newbie questions. Rugby 7s is awesome, and I'm definitely gonna try to follow it.

 

[The NZ Patriots]

Thanks to everyone in this thread who took the time to answer our newbie questions. Rugby 7s is awesome, and I'm definitely gonna try to follow it.

The Rugby Championship is coming up soon, I'd seriously recommend watching the 15 a side game. The majority of 7's teams are made up of fringe national team players and provincial players from the full format game.

People are pretty filthy here as there was some controversy on our coach's policy of not including All Blacks at the last minute. Nevertheless NZ's form in tournaments over the last 2 years has been average outside of the Australasian legs.

So stoked for Fiji - their first ever medal. Such a deserving country. Loved how they all knelt before Princess Anne after receiving their medals.

 

[PatsBoy12]

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Finally got caught up on watching it all. A pretty great game. I could definitely get into it. It's like watching an entire game of no-time-on-the-clock punt returns Now I'm curious to see what standard 15-a-side rugby union looks like.

It was also fascinating to see the shadows of gridiron football from the two sports' shared long-ago ancestor.
* The defense having to stay back 10m when a free kick is taken.
* The kicking team being able to play a free kick once the ball has gone 10m.
* Goal posts up on the goal line.
* The phrase "in touch" -- read the NFL rulebook and you'll see it uses the phrase and talks about teams putting the ball "in touch". Though in the NFL "in touch" only applies to the ball crossing the goal line, not the sidelines.
* The word "touchdown" itself. I have to think that is a relic of a try where the ball actually has to be touched-down to the ground to score.
* The conversion after try/TD.
* Being able to score a drop goal in open play. That's analogous to being able to dropkick a FG. The parallel was closer before the NFL rules change 15 or so years ago that restricted drop-kick FGs from being taken behind the LOS -- before that you could do a drop-kick FG from anywhere on the field.
* The play not being over when the clock hits zero -- as long as the ball is in play at 0:00 you keep playing until the play is over (of course, the rugby definition of "play" is a lot broader than the NFL one).
* Shape of the ball, of course

I imagine there are more.

 

[manxman2601]

Finally got caught up on watching it all. A pretty great game. I could definitely get into it. It's like watching an entire game of no-time-on-the-clock punt returns Now I'm curious to see what standard 15-a-side rugby union looks like.

It was also fascinating to see the shadows of gridiron football from the two sports' shared long-ago ancestor.
* The defense having to stay back 10m when a free kick is taken.
* The kicking team being able to play a free kick once the ball has gone 10m.
* Goal posts up on the goal line.
* The phrase "in touch" -- read the NFL rulebook and you'll see it uses the phrase and talks about teams putting the ball "in touch". Though in the NFL "in touch" only applies to the ball crossing the goal line, not the sidelines.
* The word "touchdown" itself. I have to think that is a relic of a try where the ball actually has to be touched-down to the ground to score.
* The conversion after try/TD.
* Being able to score a drop goal in open play. That's analogous to being able to dropkick a FG. The parallel was closer before the NFL rules change 15 or so years ago that restricted drop-kick FGs from being taken behind the LOS -- before that you could do a drop-kick FG from anywhere on the field.
* The play not being over when the clock hits zero -- as long as the ball is in play at 0:00 you keep playing until the play is over (of course, the rugby definition of "play" is a lot broader than the NFL one).
* Shape of the ball, of course

I imagine there are more.

Well the scrimmage between OL and DL is basically a scrum. And in Rugby the Scrum half and fly half positions are collectively known as half backs.

 

[raduray]

Finally got caught up on watching it all. A pretty great game. I could definitely get into it. It's like watching an entire game of no-time-on-the-clock punt returns Now I'm curious to see what standard 15-a-side rugby union looks like.

It was also fascinating to see the shadows of gridiron football from the two sports' shared long-ago ancestor.
* The defense having to stay back 10m when a free kick is taken.
* The kicking team being able to play a free kick once the ball has gone 10m.
* Goal posts up on the goal line.
* The phrase "in touch" -- read the NFL rulebook and you'll see it uses the phrase and talks about teams putting the ball "in touch". Though in the NFL "in touch" only applies to the ball crossing the goal line, not the sidelines.
* The word "touchdown" itself. I have to think that is a relic of a try where the ball actually has to be touched-down to the ground to score.
* The conversion after try/TD.
* Being able to score a drop goal in open play. That's analogous to being able to dropkick a FG. The parallel was closer before the NFL rules change 15 or so years ago that restricted drop-kick FGs from being taken behind the LOS -- before that you could do a drop-kick FG from anywhere on the field.
* The play not being over when the clock hits zero -- as long as the ball is in play at 0:00 you keep playing until the play is over (of course, the rugby definition of "play" is a lot broader than the NFL one).
* Shape of the ball, of course

I imagine there are more.

Yeah, this was new to me as well, and the similarities were fascinating, as were the dissimilarities. Their short drop kicks reminded me of the disaster against the Eagles last year. Guess we won't be seeing it here anytime soon.

 

[The NZ Patriots]

All Blacks v Wallabies this Saturday 7:30pm AEST - for all of you wanting to watch the best team in the world. I suspect it will be a close one.

 

[upstater1]

Those of you who wanted to get a look at how the full-side Rugby game looks like can watch a game right now (10 am) on NBC Sports Network from the English Premier league. Personally I like to see th big guys get involved in the full-side game over the 7 aside.