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Rugby Rules explained. Early point scoring was limited to the kicking of conversions. Under the rugby rules at the time, these could only be taken after the ball had successfully been grounded over the opponents line, which were called touchdowns, but no points were awarded for this in the first versions of the Rules of Rugby. All the 'Rugby Rules' entitled the attacking side to do was to attempt the conversion. The spectators, in their enthusiasm, would take up the shout ‘‘Try, Try'', meaning an attempt should be made at kicking the goal. From this term ‘‘Try for goal'' came the term we know today for points scored.
The player who had made the touchdown had to kick the ball from that point to his kicker, who was charged by the opposing side. If the kicker could catch the ball before the opponents reached him then the kick was allowed and he was entitled to place the ball for the kick at goal. When he took the kick his own team also charged for if he was unsuccessful, they would try to gain another touchdown. Whether the try was converted or not the kick off took place from between the goal posts. It was fourteen years later that the Rugby Rules were were changed in that in the event of no goals being scored, the side which scored most tries won. Obviously this caused dissatisfaction for within one year three tries were given equal status to one goal. In 1890 a further rule change was made to rugby in that a try now counted one point, and a goal three, and any other goal four points including a field goal, which was defined in the laws as ‘‘any ball kicked through" the goal posts after, for example, a dribbling rush, the only proviso being that nobody touched it. The shape of the rugby field does not come from rugby rules. It was designed by accident, for when the game moved from the streets and school quadrangles to the playing field, the only markings were a line through the middle indicating the territory of each side and another which indicated the goal. When the rugby game started to attract spectators they would encroach onto the playing area so a line was drawn to keep them back. The rules said a ball did not become dead until it was grounded over this line. The first player to get the ball over the spectators line to touch it down was entitled to restart the game by putting the ball in. That is how the term the ‘‘touch line'' came into being. The dead ball line was a much later introduction into the rugby rules and was only introduced into rugby during the 1887/88 season in the United Kingdom as a result of an incident that took place in a match at Newport in Wales. This game was played on an exceptionally windy day and a player chased the ball over the goal line for some 300 yards before he eventually caught up with it and touched it down, claiming his try. The outcome was the introduction of the dead ball line law. The
Laws of the Rugby Union game today comprise the following subject
areas, rules and notes: Rugby Rules extract used with permission: Big Brian's Sports Stories (Sth Africa) See
also these rugby history web sites: Rugby
History (pre 1895) |
The
rugby rules required a conversion process in itself that was more
complicated then what we know today and must have been comical to
watch.