Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Different types of rugby

There are a few types of rugby being played and players are specified for that type of play. There is the rugby sevens where there are only 7 players on a team and there are different rules to normal rugby. There is the rugby league where places from countries play against each other in a league and they get points for every win. Rugby Union is countries playing against each other to get higher ranked in the world.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Research- is rugby a safe sport to play?

Rugby is a safe sport to play as long as you know what you are doing at that time. Sometimes, you may get a bump but as long as you know how to handle these youll also survive . You are a lot less likely to get a serious injury in rugby since it is a close full contact sport meaning, you only hold the ball for a short amount of times usually and you get tackled and you have to pass the ball, unlike holding the ball for a long time and someone running up to you from 20 yards and then tackling you then it might hurt, since he gains power when he runs. Also, you can never be hit in the air so you wont fall on your head when you hit the ground ( only the unlucky ones get tackled in the air) . There are team members and coaches to prevent this from happening and referees to condone dangerous play.

Research- Is rugby dangerous?

"Fitness: Rugby is a full contact sport that lasts over a period of time. Fitness enables a player to make it around the field. Fitness enables a player to continue to concentrate on the game. Often when a player lacks fitness, his concentration and focus on the game and their potential actions within the game starts to drop significantly. A player will only focus on how bad they are personally sucking. Fitness enables a player to continue to play hard. The human body has a natural fight or flight mechanism. The fight mechanism increases a player's arousal level both physically and mentally. Many injuries occur when a player is neither physically nor mentally prepared to make contact. The focus on fitness, especially at the lower levels of play was often lacking. When I first started playing in the rugby dark ages, American football players were admired (quietly of course) for being athletes first and players second. Then it was rugby player first, and if one was an athlete, cool. the modern game puts a premium on athletes.

Knowledge of the game. Purely from a practical sense, a sport where multiple pieces of beef are making repeated contact with each other and the ground is a recipe for significant injuries. The Laws of the Game are designed minimize the danger of the sport by making several blatantly dangerous acts common in other sports (contact for intimidation, contact with intent to injure, etc) major penalties. The laws have very specific requirements for certain inherently dangerous player positions, specific requirements and sanctions for violating the requirements during the course of play, and laws that regulate equipment and playing environment. Props (large squatty bodies on the front row) are required to maintain a safe body position that takes into account the massive forces going through their bodies. Tacklers may not leave their feet and must physically wrap their arms around their opponent. The field must be cleared of dangerous conditions (hard surfaces, sharp objects, spectator line, padded goal posts, etc). In spite of the importance of physical attributes in rugby, it is the mental aspects of knowledge of the laws and application of techniques that contributes more to a successful rugby player.

Proper equipment: This is very important and is recognized as such by the laws. Items of equipment must not have dangerous edges and surfaces. The first and most important piece of equipment is the mouthpiece. While it is good for protecting the teeth, it is more important for minimizing the effects of concussion. The mouthpiece provides a cushion when the lower jaw makes sudden contact with the skull, such as in most types of tackles. Rugby boots do not have toe cleat. This prevents a single jotting point at the toe that can be used as dangerous weapons. The cleats themselves are “safety stud” made up of aluminum. While not obvious, they are safer because they wear evenly, rarely having sharp edges and burrs common in other sports cleats. Head protection and shoulder pads are relatively new additions to the sport and the court is still out on their benefits. I am convinced that they are not useful for new players and youth players, especially with Americans with a football background. When proper playing technique is used, the shoulder pads and head gear provide some minimum protection if something goes wrong. There are two unfortunate tendencies that I have seen. One is that in spite of the padding being relatively thin, many players have an unrealistic belief in their protective capability, putting less reliance on skill and technique. The second is with this belief in the protective capability of the padding; there is a tendency to use shoulders and heads more as weapons. These are not plastic padded helmets and huge shoulder pads.

Attitude: Rugby is a sport steeped in tradition. Many of these traditions are based on the early days of rugby union when it was the province of the gentlemen classes both in school and society. The Latin root for the word amateur is amat, to love. Amateurs play the sport for the love of the sport. Due its early environment, being a gentlemen and anamateur went hand in hand. Realistically, there must be some sort of discipline on a playing field with thirty players and a single referee. Sportsmanship, the paradigm of playing fairly provides that discipline. Dangerous play is unacceptable. The attitude of intentionally injuring your opponent has no place in rugby.


The previous is philosophy and concepts. One major reason that rugby has significantly fewer catastrophic injuries then many other sports is simply, there are fewer contacts and each contact is within certain specific conditions.

Contact is what causes most injuries. Look at an average American football play that lasts fifteen seconds. Every lineman makes full contact with their opponent (seven contacts). The blocking back makes maybe three good high speed blocks (three contacts); the ball carrier who gets tackled (one contact). This is eleven contacts, many either high speed or high force contacts are made in fifteen seconds. In rugby contact is made in set play according to specific requirements (front row hits opposition at referee's command) the ball gets out. In loose play, contact can only be made in the vicinity of the ball and generally only the initial tackle is either high speed or high force. It can take up to a minute and a half of rugby playing to have the same number of contacts that American football has almost every play. A vast majority of the rugby contacts are regulated by the laws and are designed minimize the danger of the contacts, so they are usually niether high speed or high force. In addition, this is where knowledge of the laws and fitness come into play. Unlike American football where it is the tackler who is often hurt, in rugby it is the tackler who is hurt. A player who knows how to tackle safer is less likely to get."

"With rugby players becoming bigger and more physical, as the newly found professional era takes its effect on the game, rugby union is indeed becoming more dangerous. With more and more game time being forced upon the players too, the incidence of major injuries is becoming a common issue, one which has the potential to seriously impact the nature of the game.

Whilst we can learn somewhat from American football and their obsession with pads and helmets, it's clear that these only help to increase the physicality, as players are able to plough into each other with greater intensity resulting in far more life threatening injury concerns."

Research- origin of rugby.

"Many believe that rugby was born in 1823 when William Webb Ellis "with fine disregard for the rules of football (remember football was yet to split into the various codes) as played in his time at Rugby school, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game". Although it is worth pointing out that this is apocryphal as there is little in the way of evidence to substantiate this view, it is however, the popular view. So much so in fact that the international committee named the Rugby world cup the "William Webb Ellis Trophy".

The towns first public commemoration of the game of Rugby was unveiled by Jeremy Guscott on 26th September 1997.The bronze statue, by Graham Ibbeson and modeled after his own son, cost £40,000 which was raised by a public appeal. The bronze statue of a boy running with a Rugby ball, cast using the lost wax technique, now stands at the junction of Lawrence Sheriff Street and Dunchurch Road, beside the school and opposite Gilbert's museum."

research- how did rugby first start.

There is 1 main story on how rugby first started. The story begins in England in a football match where William Webb Ellis picked up a ball and ran towards the goal line while his teammates tried and tackled him.

Sure of my final question

I have decided today that i will change my question so my final answer may not be so complicated. It is now ' Why is rugby popular? '

Six thinking hats about this inquiry and about my topic.

Red hat: The things I like about this inquiry is the fact that we get to blog on our feelings and keep it opened minded. The things i dont like about this inquiry is that the whole topic is quite boring and doing a final presentation on everything we have learned is quite annoying and might be hard to do.

White hat: We need to bring information such as knowing how to to research and how to produce a final presentation. I also need to know what websites on the internet are safe and useful while others are dangerous. I could also know how to do a survey and present our final presentation of our overall inquiry.

Yellow hat: Doing research on this topic or gathering information from other sources or people might give me more knowledge overall on my topic or question. This inquiry may improve my researching skills and blogging skills. Rugby is a fast, fun and non- stop sport that can be enjoyed by anyone.

Black hat: Rugby can be a dangerous sport to do and at times you can get injured around different parts of your body. The bad things about this inquiry is that its quite boring and annoying to do sometimes. I also dont like the idea that we have to do a final presentation because we already have the knowledge of this question or topic we are doing. my topic or question might be hard to find and might be quite complicated to answer.

Green hat: I could be more open minded on my blog and try to enjoy the inquiry by communicating with my friends and helping. My friends could help with my final presentation which is most likely a video, and so this would make it easier for me.

Blue hat: I am going to try and achieve today more research on my topic and be sure of my final question. I could also think about what i will do in my final presentation and get a small clue of what the answer is to my question.