Rugby Uncovered: A Deep Dive into Its Many Variations
The weekend that saw February turn to March brought with it the third round of Major League Rugby (MLR), and as exciting as that was, it was not the only professional “rugby” competition going on here Stateside. Allegiant stadium, once again, hosted a series of Rugby League (League) matches. Now, I know there may be a few of you out there thinking to yourself, “What is this League thing he keeps talking about? Isn’t rugby, rugby?” Hence why before I start yammering about what happened in Vegas, I’m going to use this blog to explain why “rugby” doesn’t always mean rugby.
Thanks to the MLR, the Olympics and now the National Rugby League (NRL) of Australia the word rugby is getting more media coverage than ever before in the US. Unfortunately, though, the general sporting public within the US has no idea that the “rugby” they watched in the Olympics isn’t the same has the “rugby” played in the MLR, nor do they realize that neither of those are the same as the “rugby” that was played in Vegas. Most Americans are quite shocked when they find out that there are actually quite a few different versions (codes) of rugby out there.
In the 1890s, League split off from Union creating two distinct codes. From those two codes came yet more codes. From the original 15-a-side Union came 7’s and 10’s. Sprouting off from the 13 a side League came 9’s. Feeling overwhelmed and asking yourself why this has turned into a math paper? Don’t worry, I’ll try to make better sense out of all this.
As I just mentioned, each of those numbers represents a different code of rugby and how many people are on the field per side. 15’s is 15 against 15, 7’s is 7 against 7, and so on. Having come directly from 15’s, 7’s and 10’s mostly follow the same laws (all codes of rugby have laws, not rules). 7’s and 10’s have rucks, mauls and scrums which are unique to Rugby Union. Similarly, 9’s follow basically the same laws as 13’s. This would mean none of those Union stables are anywhere to be found, and a “tackle count” is used to determine how long a team is allowed to play offense. All of which are characteristics of Rugby League.
With that being said, there are plenty of people out there that see the 15 a side game as the ONLY true sport of Rugby, and everything else is just a bastardized version of it. Even though 7’s is widely popular across the globe, and is the code of rugby played in the Olympics. As silly as that may seem, though, when people say “rugby” they are usually talking about 15’s. 7’s, 10’s and 9’s are usually just referred to by their numbers (like I just did), and 13’s is normally just referred to as League. Even League fans and players make the distinction of only calling 15’s rugby. Of course, just to make things more complicated, Australians will refer to all of these plus football (soccer) and Aussie Rules simply as “footy”, and it is up to you to try and figure out just what the hell sport they are talking about.
Still trying to wrap your mind around why there are so many different codes of rugby? Well I’ll try to give the condensed version. Basically, League split from Union because League wanted to pay players as compensation for missing work to train and play, and Union thought it was ridiculous to pay grown men to play a child’s game (Union did not formally allow players to be paid until about 100 years later in 1995!).
7’s came about because some Scottish rugby backs were looking for a fun way to stay in shape during the offseason. In 1883 two brothers turned this new code into a fund-raising event. This is how we came to have 7’s being played in a tournament style where one team can play two to three matches per day, and the tournament lasts two or three days. Each match is pretty short though, with only two seven minute halves. 9’s is played the same way, except with two nine minute halves and following League laws of course. This is a stark contrast to the 15’s/13’s model where you play one 80 minute match per week.
10’s was invented as a kind of compromise between 15’s and 7’s. Bigger, slower teams would go on tour to places with smaller, yet faster people. The bigger teams would kill the smaller teams in 15’s, but the smaller teams found it too easy to run around the bigger teams in 7’s. 10’s allowed for both teams to exert their dominance while playing a more evenly matched game. 10’s is also played in a tournament style similar to 7’s and 9’s.
What’s interesting is when you start looking at the comparisons between 15’s and 13’s, and between 7’s and 9’s. I’m not going to do a full deep dive into the differences between Rugby and League because Sports Explained does a much better job in this video than I could ever do here. Just a brief overview would be the number of players on the field per side, the field lines for League are very similar to American football (whereas the lines for Rugby look like a small child was in charge of placement, direction and whether or not to use solid or dashed lines), and as I mentioned above rucks, scrums and lineouts are critical parts of Rugby while they don’t even exist in League. Plus League has a tackle count similar to the “downs” system in American football; while in Rugby a team can play as many phases (downs) for as long as they can maintain possession. Again, I highly recommend watching that video for a further explanation.
All these differences make it just about impossible for Rugby and League teams to play either. Everytime a match between codes has been tried in the past the score lines have been extremely one sided. If they play by Union laws the Union team would destroy the League team and vice versa. The differences even make it difficult for players to switch from one code to the other. It does happen, but it normally takes quite a bit of time for players to fully make the switch.
Be that as it may, the interesting part happens when we look at 7’s and 9’s. Even though they both follow their respective Rugby/League laws, crossover between the two is actually fairly common. 7’s teams have entered in 9’s tournaments and 9’s teams have entered in 7’s tournaments with both doing surprisingly well. Papa New Guinea (historically only a League/9’s playing nation) actually made it to several Rugby 7’s World Cups, with the latest being the 2018 version. They have even made it to the semifinals of the historic Hong Kong 7’s tournament in 2017.
Confused? Wondering why there is such a difference when comparing the two sets of codes? Remember how I mentioned why 10’s was created? With such fewer people on the field, rucks, scrums and lineouts are much less of an imposing obstacle in 7’s. Plus both codes revolve around a team being able to play a fast paced game based on what is in front of them. With the matches being so short, there’s not enough time for complex strategies. Plus there is so much space available on the field that those complex strategies aren’t needed to open up the defense. Just find where the space is, play quickly, and execute your skills. The best teams in the world for 7’s and 9’s are doing those three things consistently. I may have just upset some people by over simplifying those two sports, but I stand by my claim!
To answer a question from the beginning; no, “rugby” is not always rugby. There are several unique and entertaining games out there that can go by the moniker of rugby, and hopefully now you can distinguish between them all. Which will be beneficial when you read my next piece about what happened in The City of Sin. So please, whether it’s Rugby or League, 7’s, 9’s or 10’s go enjoy yourself some footy!
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