RE RUGBY UNION - RULES, DISCUSSION, EXPLANATION, STRATEGY, ANALYSIS
Could someone please help a profound "newbie"
I'm currently watching the WALLABIES vs SPRINGBOKS on TV, and I don't understand (the overall strategy of play).
I've downloaded the WIKIPEDIA page titled RUGBY UNION, and though it informs on some matters, it adds confusion (to me). Here are some of my questions, and I hope someone can be patient and analytical, rather than offended that I am not instantly converted to this kind of sporting religion.
1. The final WIKI page contains a useful diagram of PLAYER POSITIONS, but it doesn't inform if this is a
half-field, the dimensions of the field, the distance to important line markings, nor how the OPPOSING PLAYERS are disposed (at the beginning of play, presumably).
The immediate prior text contains labels such as "half-back", "three-quarter-back", and "full-back", but the diagram doesn't have corresponding labels.
2. The game on TV shows long kicking, a la AFL footy, but they seem to aim at some point just inside a boundary
and sometimes heading straight to an opponent. Why?
3. I've picked up that the ball can only be hand-passed back-wards (the text also alleges "side-ways"?), but can
it also be kicked any distance forward.
So why not implement a strategy of passing the ball received in your half-field, backwards, in mini-passes, gaining time, whilst 4-5 of your team stream forwards into the opposing half-field, spread out across a large front, so that the opponents can't cover all of the "streamers."
Then kick the ball long - towards these streamers - who then have more of a statistical chance to score a try.
4. Surely the aim of the game is to score tries, not waste time in seemingly machismo (and time
wasting) demonstrations of tackles, rucks, mauls, scrums.
Yes, this probably won't work, for some reason. But please be patient and tell me why. My rellies merely scream at me to shut up and go back to AFL territory, down south in Victoria. That is not a good explanantion to me.