It has occurred to me that I use a lot of language when trying to teach rugby that may be a tad opaque. The Lugi Lions is a very colourful club, with players from many different countries and rugby backgrounds. And so perhaps not everyone will understand me if I say something like: “Get your paws off the pill, piggy, and clear out that ruck!”.

So I think it’s in everyone’s interest if I take the time to explain what I mean when I talk rugby.

I’m going to start pretty simple today and talk about the forward positions. While this is at first glance seems quite simple, many positions have more than one name, and depending on where you play in the world, slightly different roles. This is a pretty important part of the game – a part I’m sure many of you experienced players will know well – but it is something you absolutely need to understand before I can go on to some of the other terminology.

Because I am Australian and have played the majority of my rugby in the southern hemisphere, my explanations are going to be leaning southward. Obviously, this is a bit of an open forum, so feel free to add your comments below.

There are fifteen players on the field, eight forwards and seven backs. Typically you are allowed seven additional players on the bench. In Sweden, the rules are a bit different: three (with only one front rower); five (with two front rowers); and, eight (with three). This brings the maximum number of players we can field in a match to twenty three.

Forwards typically play in tight, close to the ball. They participate in scrums and lineouts. They secure the ball in rucks and mauls. Backs set the first phase of attack and organise defencively out wide. They are the ball carriers, the passers, the kickers and frequently also the try scorers.

Forwards

The front row is comprised of three large, strong players. Traditionally, they have not had to have been particularly fit or adept with the ball. This is not the case so much any longer. They are the ones who engage the opposition at scrums and lift players in the lineout.

1. Loosehead prop. The loosehead prop gets its name from the fact that it is bound in the scrum by only one opposition player: it’s left side is free from the scrum. This means that the number one is typically more mobile than the number three and often a bit more devious. It is not altogether uncommon to see the loosehead providing first phase support from the scrum with the back row.
2. Hooker. The hooker hooks the ball with their right foot on an attacking scrum’s feed. They also often try to steal or spoil the feed in defence. They typically throw in the ball at lineouts although this is not required at our level of the game. Hookers are often quite skilled players and strong leaders.
3. Tighthead prop. The tighthead is bound in the scrum by both the opposition’s hooker and loosehead. They are the most important pillar of physical and psychological strength in the scrum and need to have an in depth knowledge of scrummaging technique. When the opposition wheels, they need to know what to do to maximise the chances of winning a penalty. They are sometimes the best option for running with the ball from the breakdown (a-pick-and-go) when close to the try line.

The second row (numbers 4 and 5, also known as the locks) is comprised of two tall, strong players. They are not required to differentiate their game significantly from one another, although they typically have a preference for which prop they bind in the scrums. Because of their height, second rowers are lifted in the lineouts. As ball runners, second rowers can be very effective at pulling in players but are often considered an easy catch for the opposition’s back row. (For some reason I can not explain, all of the hardest and dirtiest players in rugby seem to play in the second row.)

The back row are the scavengers. They play a very loose and often unpredictable style of rugby, capitalising quickly on the mistakes of the opposition. Back rowers do not have to be of any particular shape or size (although it helps to be quick, strong and well-balanced), but they must have an unparalleled tenacity and aggression for the ball. More than any other position, the players in the back row exploit the laws of rugby for their own benefit.

6. Blindside flanker. Unless a scrum is awarded in the centre of the field, the distance from the scrum to the sideline will be shorter on one side than the other. This is called the short side, or more commonly, the blind side. The number six binds to the second row on the blind side of the scrum. They are often big players and strong in defence, capable of jumping in the lineouts or drawing in defenders in attack.
7. Openside flanker. For a fan of the breakdown, this position is arguably the most interesting on the field. The openside flanker binds to the opposite side of the scrum than the blindside flanker (the long or open side). They are the first person to support and the first person to defend.
8. Number Eight (also eight-man). This player stands at the back of the scrum and controls the ball for the scrum half. They are often big like a blindside flanker but quick like an openside. They have a lot of freedom to do whatever they want in attack and defence but shoulder considerable responsibility and are expected to have an impact on the game.

Part two of this post, the backs, will be coming shortly.

I want to leave you today with a well-worn saying in rugby that I believe has some measure of truth to it. The forwards decide which team wins a game. The backs decide by how much.

Here’s a little tip for those of you who are not using the lovely ‘Shades of Rugby’ as your primary calendar.

You may be interested in incorporating the Lugi Lions events into your iCal or Microsoft Outlook and receiving updates as they happen . To do this, you will need to subscribe to its ICS file. These can be found at:

Men’s games

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/1gftag4ddot52ni8jnhkvl2t8k%40group.calendar.google.com/private-ab340002dfc1034a9f6765a10a220357/basic.ics

Old Boy’s

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/r881or0gkuujhs5lcnrmtpj7os%40group.calendar.google.com/private-92775f7430c7a5be913e8c290c5aa591/basic.ics

Parties

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/4121a96aaak6nprpl8bp4gd7p4%40group.calendar.google.com/private-755cb1397ce9ba437dfc42014a49a2af/basic.ics

Training

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/pt9i4bk2ueef0q9394fd760t1g%40group.calendar.google.com/private-67f548246e00238a1a2e93d71d1ad16d/basic.ics

Women’s games

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/ajebguvvu5uddv9mrrcsrt8j00%40group.calendar.google.com/private-090ae1846b91ce60d7660a26c1249447/basic.ics

Youth

https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/8g90nn3pdum5n3iqncl6p414bg%40group.calendar.google.com/private-46da522e4d5c6a40ea5c02e13fa428e3/basic.ics

If this scares you, never fear, you will still be able to access the calendar from the sidebar on the website.

Over the pre-season I’m going to be posting some of my thoughts about playing rugby on the website. I’m doing this as a way to open up the process, to bring new players up to speed and hopefully, to get the more experienced of us thinking differently about our game.

Rugby union is a wondrous sport, but essentially, it is a very simple sport:

• The ball is carried forward by the team in possession. Defenders try to stop them.
• If you are on the ground or in front of the ball (offside) you can’t legally participate and need to get yourself into a position from which you can.
• When you get the ball, run forwards or pass backwards. When in doubt: commit. Indecision is the biggest mistake you will ever make in rugby.
• The way to make ground is to attack where the opposition defence is poor: where they have the fewest or the weakest defenders.
• A try is scored by crossing the try-line and grounding the ball. Additional points can be scored by kicking the ball over the posts.

That’s it. People can make rugby very complicated – I will make rugby complicated. It’s not. Never forget that.

Here’s the thing: there is only so much any coach will ever be able to teach you. To have flawless technique and an intimate knowledge of the moves is only a tiny fraction of playing rugby.

The Japanese have historically been the perfect example of this. More people play rugby in Japan than in any other country and yet they are ranked only 15th in the world. While they are well drilled and have access to some of the strongest coaches in the world, they have traditionally had none of the flexibility and creativity of a team like the All Blacks.

Flexibility and creativity.

This is something no coach can teach you, and it is the part of your game that will make all of the difference in playing well and in teaching yourself how to play better.

The rest of this post is going to be devoted to a meta-theory of rugby, an epistemology if you like, from which you can hopefully develop your ability to teach yourself how to play better. I can’t get this to work for you, but that I hope that through recognising it, you can encourage it yourself.

I’ve played rugby for ten years. I’ve attended a lot of training sessions and have been lucky to have had some pretty fantastic coaches. And yet when I step out on the field, not a singe thing they have said goes through my head. In fact, nothing in particular is going through my head. I’m not thinking about technique, I’m not thinking about school or about my job or about that thing I shouldn’t have done but haven’t yet. All of my worries drop away from my mind and I am focused only on what is in front of me. I’m in the zone. It’s meditative.

Perhaps I need an example to draw out what’s going on…

As a back rower I often find myself at the back of a maul deciding upon the proper moment to engage. I’m not thinking about body position, about staying low, about driving through the opposition. These things are all important, but they are not at the forefront of my mind. Instead I have a model in my head of what a maul looks like. I expect that it is soon going to turn towards me, that an opponents ribs or back is going to open up, and that I will have the best opportunity to strike. When this happens, I carry out the action with total commitment. If it doesn’t happen, I reappraise my model and try something different: I might engage anyway to help with the push, or, I might refocus my attention upon defence.

This is a knack for the moment. This is why I’m often able to gauge when a ball is going to be turned over before it is, sometimes before the tackle is made. This is why I’m often able to guess when the opposition is going to change the direction of their attack. These are things that are important to playing in the back row. I’m not able to tell when a full-back is going to run or kick the ball, and I’m not able to tell when my front rowers are going to hold, drive or wield in the scrum. Thankfully, they seem to know. I suspect all players have this knack for the moment, and that it all works, to lesser or greater amounts, in the same way as it does for me.

If we try to focus on everything we will see nothing. If we aren’t looking for something in particular, we will have no chance of seeing it at all.

So, at the risk of instrumentalising this knack for a situation, I want to draw out some principles.

1. Players have a model in their head of what something looks like. This model has been built up through experience; through watching and playing rugby.
2. They have an expectation about what is going to happen. They are literally waiting for the right moment.
3. They have an action that they intend to carry out when that moment arrises.
4. If the moment doesn’t arise they have a backup action, something they’re not likely to be as committed to achieving. This might be safe option, or if they’re mentally fatigued, it could be something risky or illegal.
5. They feed their experiences of what just happened back into their model, effecting future expectations, and best courses of action.

While confidence and commitment are crucial to the first three steps, I think the fifth step is the most important one here. It seems to be what is governing how quickly a player is developing their creativity and flexibility – it is essentially what I’m interested in for this post.

I think the fifth step rests on principles of experimentation and self-analysis. Don’t hold your ideas or methods about rugby too highly (at least not to yourself) and don’t be afraid to ask yourself questions about why what you were waiting for didn’t happen, or why what you were trying to achieve didn’t have its desired effect. The ability to develop is essentially the ability to feed all of this back into your model of the game: to learn from your mistakes.

I really hope some of you can relate to this. I don’t think model is connected to how little or how much you know but to how you learn. Have a proper think about what you’re doing when you play. If rugby doesn’t convince you that this is correct, think about something that you are good at, something you do best when you really get into that zone.

If you answered “yes” then stop reading immediately.

If instead you think that a fat bearded guy dressed in red is likely to just be a prop we have a good piece of news: you can sustain the club and get some nice present for yourself and for your families and friends. To start with, Lugi’s Santa can bring you Shades of Rugby: the calendar made by our ladies is currently in print and it’s now available (more infos here). Bare skin is not your thing? Fair enough: have a look to our small on-line shop . Finally, if you can wait a bit longer (end of January), we are now collecting orders for the official gent’s team match jerseys: send a mail to kontakt@lugirugby.com if you’re interested.
It’s a win-win deal: you treat yourself and you help the club at the same time. Plus, this would count as a “good deed”: you may be skeptical about Santa Claus but…you never know.