Rugby Sevens

Rugby Sevens is the most fun sport I have watched. If you want to watch some really incredible sports, watch a Rugby Sevens tournament.

Wife and I have been watching the HSBC Rugby Sevens tournament (on Peacock). It is nonstop excitement.

What it is: Rugby with seven players per side. (Most rugby you see is 15's.) 7-minute halves with a brief halftime.

Why you should watch it: Do you like football, rugby, or other highly physical games of running a ball to a goal? Take all the action of a typical game and condense that down into 15 minutes of nonstop action. Like 5-9 "touchdowns" in 14 minutes of play.

Because you have fewer players than usual, things are more spread out and faster. There are a lot of turn overs and surprises. Teams can come back from pretty significant deficits in surprisingly little time. Incredible plays speed and athleticism.

If you've never watched rugby, what are the critical rules to know:

It looks a lot like football, with a field with "end zones" and fieldgoal posts. Much the same way, the goal is to run the ball to the other end, then kick a field goal.

A 'touchdown' is called a 'Try', and is worth 5 points

A 'field goal' after a try is a 'Conversion', and is worth 2 points.

To score a try, you have to actually press the ball down onto the ground in the try zone, not just run into it. Where you press it down, you have to kick for a conversion from along that line on the field, so touching down near the center of the try zone is generally advantageous.

You can throw the ball backwards/sideways, but not forwards. You can kick the ball forwards.

There are lots of finnicky rules and penalties and such. You don't need to understand most of them. The most common of those that matter:

"Knock On" if a player drops, throws, taps, or otherwise moves the ball forwards with their hands, that's a "knock on" and will turn the ball over to the other team.

"Held Up" because you have to press the ball to the ground for a try, defenders will try to get their arm or body under the ball when tackling a player in the try zone. If they can get underneath it and prevent it from touching the ground, the ball is "held up", and it is not a try.

The halves do not end when the clock runs out and the whistle blows. When the whistle blows, the players get a chance to continue the current play.

I played full sides in college and freakin love rugby. Thanks for the heads up. Is it in Golden?

Teh E36 M3 said:

Is it in Golden?

Golden? CO? Or is that a sub service?

The tournament we're watching took place last weekend in L.A. We're watching replays on Peacock.

Next round in the tournament is this coming weekend, Friday the 9th through Sunday the 11th, in Cape Town, South Africa.

Wife started playing rugby a couple years ago. I started watching it with her. I have never been huge into watching sports except for big events with a group. Rugby is genuinely fun and exciting to watch.

Explain the Scrum.

It seems mostly ceremonial.  They move the ball back to start the play (kind of like the hike in Football), but it seems like they could do that far more efficiently then a scrum.

aircooled said:

Explain the Scrum.

It seems mostly ceremonial.  They move the ball back to start the play (kind of like the hike in Football), but it seems like they could do that far more efficiently then a scrum.

Rugby is goofy.

In Sevens, it's mostly ceremonial. In 15's it makes a lot more sense. Then you have 8 players per side in 3 rows, and there are actually tactics of pushing against each other for the attackers to gain ground or defenders to potentially take the ball. In sevens, it's still *technically* contested, but with only 1 row, you just roll it in and recover it.

There are however tactics of trying to draw penalties and such that some teams use.

Edit: I'd say the biggest thing is that it balances the scale a bit more in the defenders favor (or at least not away from them) than other methods of restarting. A "Quick tap" is the other common way to restart in the middle of the field (literally kicking the ball a couple inches into your own hands). That is often a good way to catch the defenders off guard and get a lot of yardage or even thread a hole quickly.

I can't watch the full thing, Sevens is the only way I can watch it. Oddly, I think I could watch soccer if it were on a field half the size with half the players. 

chandler said:

Oddly, I think I could watch soccer if it were on a field half the size with half the players. 

That exists. It's called Futsal.

Sevens is the first sport I've really found inherently exciting to watch. It's just like... distilling down everything exciting about an 80 minute rugby match into just 20 minutes of play.

Beer Baron said:

chandler said:

Oddly, I think I could watch soccer if it were on a field half the size with half the players. 

That exists. It's called Futsal.

Sevens is the first sport I've really found inherently exciting to watch. It's just like... distilling down everything exciting about an 80 minute rugby match into just 20 minutes of play.

Well I'll be

As a note, they are showing the World Cup of sevens on NBC this morning at 9:30 pacific.  About an hour from this post.

OK, can someone help me out here a bit.  I am still a bit unclear on what exactly is causing the stopping of plays (which generally are continuous).  It stops sometimes when someone gets tackled, but the tackling itself should not stop the play, right?

Can the defending team just take the ball away during a play? when a player is tackled?  Can they, or when can they, try to take possession of the ball?

Maybe if you could provide some examples of typical reasons to stop/restart/turnover when the ball carrier goes the ground.

And.   Why does the offense seem to randomly try to kick the ball forward sometimes?  What are they tying to do?  Is it like a punt (turnover) or is there an attempt at a gain of position?

This is the rule, as a website states it:

---------------------------

If a ball-carrying player goes to ground with the ball, he must either 

• Get up immediately
• Release the ball
• Pass the ball

If he doesn’t do one of these things, a penalty will be awarded to the opposition. A defending player on the floor cannot attempt to play the ball or tackle a player, this will result in a penalty to the opposition. 

A tackle can be made anywhere in the field and the tackler must release the tackled player once he’s on the ground otherwise a penalty will be given to the opposition. The tackle must be below the shoulders to ensure player safety. If the tackler makes a high tackle, a penalty will be awarded to the opposition and there could be further possible sanctions including yellow and red cards. 

Rugby 7's is awesome. But women's rugby 7's is even awesomer. The guys are *so* fast that the strategy is usually "get the ball to the outside and let your lightning bolt run it in" whereas the chicks are often much more evenly matched so there is much, much more teamwork and passing and strategy.. 

As a note, broads generally don't like to be called chicks 

And yes, I also noticed the style of play seemed very different.

aircooled said:

OK, can someone help me out here a bit.  I am still a bit unclear on what exactly is causing the stopping of plays (which generally are continuous).  It stops sometimes when someone gets tackled, but the tackling itself should not stop the play, right?

Rugby rules are kinda complicated and I don't understand them all except in very broad strokes. I generally just trust that the referees know and the players have a solid sense of the rules that I don't need to understand all their nuances.

The short answer is: someone commits some sort of penalty. Then the team the penalty is in favor of gets the ball and gets to restart play.

Can the defending team just take the ball away during a play? when a player is tackled?  Can they, or when can they, try to take possession of the ball?

The situation you're describing, where the ball carrier is tackled, is called a ruck. Here are rules governing rucks.

The key rule for this situation is: "Once a ruck has formed, no player may handle the ball unless they were able to get their hands on the ball before the ruck formed and stay on their feet."

So you have to have tackled the ball carrier or been right next to the tackler, but *not* gone down to the ground in the tackle. That's really tough to do.

Maybe if you could provide some examples of typical reasons to stop/restart/turnover when the ball carrier goes the ground.

Following those rules, common reasons for a penalty that stops/restarts/turnover are:

• Defender not letting go of the ball to an opposing player trying to take it legally
• Offsides penalty by someone entering the ruck
• Trying to take the ball away illegally
• A player on the ground not rolling out of the way to clear the ruck
• A player coming off of their feet as they enter the ruck or try to go over the tackled player to take the ball. "Diving" into the ruck. (This is a safety thing.
• Knock on.

And.   Why does the offense seem to randomly try to kick the ball forward sometimes?  What are they tying to do?  Is it like a punt (turnover) or is there an attempt at a gain of position?

Depends on the situation. It could be an offensive play or a defensive one. Or a bit of a hybrid.

You'll see it defensively sometimes if a player gets the ball waaaay back by their try zone. Since turnovers are common, the idea is just to clear it down the field to lessen the chance of the opposing team getting a turn over and making an easy try. If you're lucky, it will gain yardage down the field, and then your team will have the opportunity to get a turn-over in your favor. This is more common in 15's than 7's.

It can be an emergency "oh E36 M3" maneuver. If you're on your own and about to be tackled by a group, it can be an alternative to getting tackled and having the ball stripped. Kicking means they will have more ground to cover, and buys your team time to get into a defensive position.

It's an offensive play, especially in sevens. You can kick it forward and then you or someone on your team can recover it. You'll see faster players do this - spot an opening that isn't *quite* big enough to run through, so they kick instead. They've already got momentum, the defender has to suddenly stop, pivot, and change direction to give chase. An especially fast attacker can often create an opening for themselves this way.

Fantasy rugby tournament matchup: Team Mullet vs. Team Mustache

I missed this thread but I played full side (Loose head, second row, and winger depending on the team) for most of my late teens and 20s. I would have loved 7s but it wasn't really popular in the US to play at the time. 

7s is by far the best rugby to watch. It's quick moving and stays active the whole time. The physical endurance to play it is insane! Glad you all are enjoying it. Rugby in america should be bigger than it is but it's overshadowed by Football for sure. 

I enjoy watching sevens because it's fast and dynamic and I have absolutely no idea what's going on :) Trying to reverse engineer the rules from watching is a big part of the fun for me. 

Keith Tanner said:

I enjoy watching sevens because it's fast and dynamic and I have absolutely no idea what's going on :) Trying to reverse engineer the rules from watching is a big part of the fun for me. 

Yes!

Reminds me of this skit: