Intro to Rugby: Positions
Welcome to Sorrel tries to get You, Yes You into rugby. Do you like staring at attractive people of all shapes and sizes? Do you like the idea of them colliding with each other at high speed? Do you like long, lingering slomo shots of rippling leg muscles? Do you like size differences? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then rugby might be the sport for you!
To understand rugby, you first want to understand how to identify the players that you personally want to lust after the most. In fifteen a side rugby, a player's position can be identified by the number on their back. As a general rule of thumb, the smaller the number, the larger the player and the larger the number, the faster the player.
There are two genders of rugby player: forwards and backs. Forwards are big, strong, slow defensive players who form a human meat shield to prevent the opposite team from moving the ball past them. They make up numbers 1-8. Backs are small, fast, nimble offensive players who weave around and through the forwards to get past them and score. They make up numbers 9-15. A fast forward or a strong back are a really nice treat if you can get them, but not everyone is built special.
Forwards are defined by the fact that they're the ones who go in the scrum. The scrum looks like this.
[ID: Australian and South African women's teams scrumming. Two masses of eight women each crouch down, linked together in two big blobs with heads shoved between thighs, shoving against each other. End ID]
The scrum is how the game restarts when the ball has been stopped for any other reason than going into touch (out of bounds). Forwards are defined by their role in the scrum and they're chosen primarily for their size and strength so that they can scrum effectively.
The Front Row are the front row of the scrum and consist of two props and one hooker. The props prop up each side of the front row while the hooker is in the middle and hooks the ball with their feet when it enters the scrum. The hooker is also typically responsible for throwing in the ball at a lineout. We'll get a what a lineout is later. The Front Row are typically the fattest players on the field and if not outright fat, they're at least bulky and heavy.
Our representative props are South Africa's Ox Nché and Australia's Eva Karpani. Helpfully for the demonstration of positions, Ox plays as a loosehead and Eva plays as a tighthead. The loosehead is number 1 and has only one head next to theirs in the scrum. The tighthead is number 3 and has their head between the opposing loosehead and hooker.
Our representative hookers are Argentina's Julián Montoya and England's Amy Cokayne.
The Locks complete the Tight Five with the front row. They're the two middle players in what is obviously the four person second row of the scrum. The locks are also responsible for retrieving the ball at lineout. What's a lineout, you ask? That's how you get the ball back in field. It looks like this.
[ID: South African and Irish men's teams competing in a lineout. The South African player is lifted at full extension by two other players and has caught the ball. The Irish player is not lifted at full extension, but is reaching for the ball. End ID]
The hooker for the team that has possession throws the ball in between two lines and both go up to try and catch the ball. Obviously, the hooker's team has the advantage because this is a play they can practice and do set moves on, but whoever gets the ball gets the ball. Because of this, having a very tall lock is incredibly valuable and while locks and props are both massive players, locks put their mass into height instead of width.
Our representative locks are South Africa's Eben Etzebeth and France's Madoussou Fall. She's 6'2 and he's 6'8.
The Back Row comprises the two players on the outer edges of the clearly four person second row and the one person who is actually in the back. 6-7 are Flankers and 8 is Number Eight, which is the second silliest name for a rugby position after Hooker.
Now, obviously, there are only two genders of rugby players, but if you're some kind of post modernist freak, you might point out that 6-10 sort of hybridize the roles of true forwards and true backs and comprise some sort of middle position.
Flankers are expected to do everything, but especially win the ball back in turnovers, providing the crucial link between forward defense and back offense. Sixes will tend to be larger and slower than sevens, but most flankers can wear either shirt as the situation demands. They join in the scrum and help push, but are expected to be the first to break off once the ball is out.
This is the point where the prototypical player starts looking like Generic Buff Person instead of Refrigerator or Giraffe.
Our representative Flankers are Chile's Raimundo Martínez and England's Sadia Kabeya.
The Number 8 is the last player in the scrum, the only one in the scrum allowed to pick the ball out of the scrum with their hands, and the one responsible for steering and usually also generally controlling the scrum. In open play, the Number 8 needs to be explosively fast and strong to try and burst through the opponent's defensive line.
Our representative Number 8s are New Zealand's Ardie Savea and Canada's Sophie de Goede. Note that kicking is basically the only skill that Number 8s aren't expected to have. Sophie de Goede is simply built different.
Backs are the players who aren't in the scrum. They're expected to be small, light, and nimble compared to the forwards, but teams are also not against deploying the cannonball in the bowling alley approach when that options presents itself. They also have to know how to kick, which forwards don't. Throwing the ball forward is super illegal in rugby, but kicking it forward is fine.
Okay, we got the scrum set up. Great. How do we get the ball into it? And how do we get it back moving again? That's where the halfbacks come in.
The scrum half with possession puts the ball into the scrum where the two teams meet and picks it up again out of the back. The scrum half without possession complains to the ref that the other scrum half is doing something wrong. The scrum half is traditionally the smallest player on the field
The scrum half's job is also to get the ball out of a ruck. What's a ruck? A ruck is what happens when a player gets tackled and their team are close enough to support them. It looks something like this.
[ID: Irish and French men's teams rucking. Pile of Irish players with the ball at the back being retrieved by the Irish scrumhalf, who is looking away, ready to pass. Two French players are also in the pile. One is on the ground while another is getting to his feet, ready to lunge at the scrumhalf. End ID]
Our representative scrum halfs are Japan's Atsushi Hiwasa and France's Pauline Bourdon Sansus. Both of them play in teams where the scrumhalf is the primary game manager and decision maker, but in most teams, the main goal of the scrum half is just to get the ball to–
The fly half is usually the first player to receive the ball after a ruck. They lead the team and make the major decisions. They are the game manager and they are usually also the goal kicker unless the team has a particularly gifted kicker in another position.
Physically, they're more a back than a forward, tending towards the more slender, though that needn't necessarily always be the case.
Our representative fly halfs are Ireland's Johnny Sexton and New Zealand's Ruahei Demant.
Yes, centres, this is a game from England. Also we're skipping 11 on purpose. The centres are the largest and strongest backs as they're the first line of defense against anything that gets past the forwards. They're still smaller than forwards, but still big and tough. They're also expected to be at least decently fast.
Our representative centres are Ireland's Bundee Aki and Italy's Beatrice Rigoni.
11, 14, 15: The Back Three
These are the players who traditionally hang out behind the defensive line to make last ditch tackles and catch any balls kicked forwards. These are the positions chosen primarily for speed. Any player on the field might need to sprint at some point (though a front line player will get their front line card revoked by reddit if they move above a trot) but these are the players for whom 50+ meter sprints are just a regular day at the office.
11 is on the left wing and 14 is on the right wing. These players are traditionally small and nimble so they're hard to catch. Less traditionally, they might also be the size of a fridge and rely more on momentum than maneuverability. Either way, they're absurdly fast.
Our traditional wingers are South Africa's Cheslin Kolbe and New Zealand's Stacey Waaka. Note that Waaka's picture is from the Olympic 7s. Rugby 7s players wear whatever number they like and their numbers have nothing to do with their positions.
Our less traditional wingers are Fiji's Waisea Nayacalevu and the USA's Ilona Maher
This is where rugby's twinkiest player goes. Their job is to make last ditch tackles and also being the hardest player to catch on offense so having some extra bulk helps, but they need the speed to get to the player that made the break. They are usually terrifyingly stronger than they look, but they don't look strong in the way a prop or lock looks strong.
Our representative fullbacks are Italy's Ange Capuozzo and England's Ellie Kildunne. I picked Kildunne because she's arguably the greatest fullback on the planet right now. I picked Capuozzo because I saw an article describe as a "snake hipped waif" and now every time I watch him play I'm like "damn look at that snake hipped waif go".
A quick word on substitutions
Rugby XVs allows for 8 players on the bench, who wear jerseys 16-23. 16-18 will always be props. 23 will always be some kind of back. Everything beyond that is up to the coach. A 5-3 split between forwards and backs is the most common. If coaches want to play more risky and power forwards, they may opt for a 6-2 split. So far, only men's South Africa and France have dared a 7-1 split and everyone online is super normal and reasonable about having one guy on the bench do something different from traditional.
A quick instance of rugby yaoi hands
[ID: South Africa's Eben Etzebeth and Cheslin Kolbe embrace. Kolbe doesn't even come up to the bottom of Etzebeth's shoulders. His hand is about half the size of one of Etebeth's hands, one of which easily wraps around his head. The other pats him on the back while Kolbe's hand rests lightly on Etzebeth's hip. Etzebeth looks to be approximately twice as wide as Kolbe is. End ID]
