The World of Scrummage

The game begins with a kickoff. The player with the ball may run with the ball or kick it or pass it to any other player laterally behind him.

If the player running the ball is tackled, he may try to kick the ball, pass it to a teammate trailing, or purposely drop it on the ground.

If the ball is dropped on the ground, up to 30 men (or women, who now play the game) may converge upon the ball, beginning a ruck and maul or a scrummage.

Welcome to rugby.

It is an action-packed sport in perpetual motion. Rugby is one of the oldest sports played, and in the last few years, it has made a comeback on many college campuses.

A cross between football and soccer, rugby has 15 players to a side and is played on a field 110 meters by 75 yards.

The object of the game is to carry the ball into the end zone for a try of kick the ball through the goal posts.

While rugby is more similar to football today, it owes its beginning to soccer. In 1831, there was a soccer game played between two teams in London. Suddenly, one of the players, William Ellis. picked up the ball and ran with it.

Rugby was born.

It became one of the most popular sports in England, and it eventually made its way to America.

During the 19th century, it was the sport at Harvard. The first intercollegiate game ever played was a rugby match between Harvard and Yale in 1874.

Just as rugby took its roots from soccer, football can thank rugby for its beginning.

Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it to start rugby, and some smart-aleck picked up the ball and threw rugby into years of being the sport a lot like football.

But there are profound differences between football and rugby.

The most obvious difference is the forward pass. The ball can only be passed laterally, or backwards, in rugby.

There is no blocking in rugby. While rugby is a contact sport, tackling is controlled.

"When tackling, the intent is to wrap the ball-carrier," Harvard volunteer Coach Martyn Kingston says. "There is a lot of technique involved, and if it is properly played, no one should get hurt."

It is a free-flowing game with few stoppages in play. The games are 80 minutes long with only a five-minute break between halves. Only two injury substitutions are allowed.

Despite this, there is an image of rugby players as beer-drinking, sing-song, no-holds-barred kind of guys.

Myth

"That's a myth," senior Annor Ackah says. "There is no way you can go out and get drunk and expect to play an 80-minute game."

Rugby at Harvard is taken very seriously by its participants. Four years ago, the Crimson ruggers captured the national championship, and is currently ranked number one in the New England area.

Although it is a competitive sport, everyone who tries out for rugby makes it--and plays. If 45 people show up, there are three sides. If 60 people show up, there are four sides. Many who play rugby at Harvard are playing it for the first time.

"It was different," Ackah says. "It looked like a lot of fun, and the camaraderie was incredible. I wasn't familiar with many of the names associated with it."

In the pack, similar to an offensive line in football in that its members are the biggest players on the team, there is a loose-head prop, a pair of locks, and a hooker.

The hooker is probably the one that catches the attention of most fans unfamiliar to the spot.

When Radcliffe rugby member Ellen Rubin tells friends that she plays rugby, they are usually inquisitive about the sport and the position she plays.

"I tell them I'm a hooker," Rubin says. "I get a lot of laughs, and eyebrows definitely raise."

Who can overlook the subtleties of rugby?