Any Rugby players?

[Colin]

I have been thinking about giving Rugby a try for quite some time and have found a local club which plays touch in the summer in prep for the season in September.

I have never played (except a day or two in gym class in Jr. High and EA Sports Rugby 2008 ) but am fascinated by the game and think it looks like a blast.

Who on Xmarks plays? and what would you recommend for someone that enjoys watching the game, but has very little understanding of the game?

I am not the fittest or most athletic person in the world, but have started playing soccer once a week (2hrs full pitch) with friends, weight train 3 days a week w/ cardio, and am also thinking of training with the local Aussie rules football team once a week. I figure at 6'4 and around 280ish lbs that I am built for sports like rugby rather than tennis

Any advise?

[Jock Scot]

Go for it!I played second row until I was 40 and loved it----- after that, take up bird watching, or,knitting.

[Navyguy]

Go for it, I started when I was 29, I'm 33 now, & want to play til I can't.

[O'Neille]

Go for it!I played second row until I was 40 and loved it----- after that, take up bird watching, or,knitting.

Same song second verse. Lost my right knee to hockey at 32 and my left knee to rugby at 42. Second row fwd myself and I kept getting older and smaller while everyone else got younger and bigger.

[beloitpiper]

I'm not allowed to play anymore. I've had 5 concussions in as many years. It's a wonder I can still speak!

[Arlen]

I have played for years and I love it. I'm 5'4" and in my best and most muscular shape weigh 150lbs and I still hold my own very well. I usually play as hooker since I'm short but even in that position I come in for a helluva lot of heavy blows.
The most important things for full contact rugby are having good wind and a strong neck and legs. (Though i notice you said they were a touch team.)

It's a fun game and definitely worth getting into. I think you'd have a lot of fun playing it.

As far as what might help you, the rules on wikipedia are fairly instructive and any decent book on the history and rules of rugby should help out.

Good luck!

[BEEDEE]

Greatest sport in the world! But then as a Kiwi, I'm biased. Played from age 11 to 29 when I broke my leg in four places! Believe me it was a freak accident, in all those years I had never seen a broken leg before. Like Arlen says, the prime requirements are good wind and strong legs. Now at 65 I still love to watch the game. It's addictive.

Brian

[###KILTEDKIWI###]

The most important things for full contact rugby

Blink, Blink? Is there another form of rugby that we don't know about?

(says the other New Zealander in jest)

A good tester to see if you will like it is to play the old school yard game of "bull rush", brillant game for honing fending and tackling skills, and or scrag, thats a fantastic game, however the body count gets fairly high after about 30 mins...( you know the game, where someone "obtains" the "ball" (or pencil case or what ever is handy) and runs like their very life depends on it, whilst mulitple others attempt to paralyse, ruck, stomp and relieve them of the "ball", and on "obtaining the ball" it is now their turn to be the ah, runner, ususally the game lasts about 30 mins upon which time the players run out of steam, obtain various injuries, and or a serious and life destroying injury occurs, heres a hint, play it with mates, not people who wish you dead...

these were bread and butter school yard games when i was growing up in NZ.
(probably why we have good ruggers teams as well)

Oh yeah played centre and wing, for far too long. (provincial age groups and weights)

P.S BEEDEE - THE JAFA'S (Auckland) ARE TAKING ON THE SWEDE EATERS (Southland) IN 2 WEEKS, SHOULD BE A GOOD GAME AT EDEN PARK...ILL LET YA KNOW HOW IT GOES.

[beowulf67]

Blink, Blink? Is there another form of rugby that we don't know about?

(says the other New Zealander in jest)

A good tester to see if you will like it is to play the old school yard game of "bull rush", brillant game for honing fending and tackling skills, and or scrag, thats a fantastic game, however the body count gets fairly high after about 30 mins...( you know the game, where someone "obtains" the "ball" (or pencil case or what ever is handy) and runs like their very life depends on it, whilst mulitple others attempt to paralyse, ruck, stomp and relieve them of the "ball", and on "obtaining the ball" it is now their turn to be the ah, runner, ususally the game lasts about 30 mins upon which time the players run out of steam, obtain various injuries, and or a serious and life destroying injury occurs, heres a hint, play it with mates, not people who wish you dead...

these were bread and butter school yard games when i was growing up in NZ.
(probably why we have good ruggers teams as well)

Oh yeah played centre and wing, for far too long. (provincial age groups and weights)

P.S BEEDEE - THE JAFA'S (Auckland) ARE TAKING ON THE SWEDE EATERS (Southland) IN 2 WEEKS, SHOULD BE A GOOD GAME AT EDEN PARK...ILL LET YA KNOW HOW IT GOES.

We had a similar game when I was growing up, but the name was much less politically correct.

I've never played rugby but wish I had when I was younger. Now my knees don't take kindly to me running on them.

[Colin]

I should clarify about the touch rugby. The season here is from September to March so a lot of the local clubs hold touch games during the summer to keep in shape. I have been speaking with the Captain of my closest team locally and he advised that it would be a great way to learn the game before adding the contact in the fall.