of all the olympic sports that i don't understand, and there are a lot of them, i understand rugby the least
just watched a guy get tackled, fumble the ball, the opponent scoop and kick the ball way downfield where no one was.. out of bounds.. and the announcers commenting remarked how amazing the play was by both teams.
no idea what's going on
When we first discovered curling (Vancouver Olympics), we found that reading the rules on Wikipedia was a big help.
It also helped that those announcers were terrific.
good tip
where curling feels like it makes sense, nothing about rugby clicks for me. find myself watching it, though. probably time to learn the rules.
There are only three games left so maybe not worth it at this point. The first thing to know is Olympic rugby is - at best - “rugby lite” because it’s 7s. I watch a ton of rugby but only see 7s during the Olympics and don't otherwise bother because it's not very entertaining for me. However, it is popular, especially in the US. Second, it’s hard to understand rugby if you filter it through the American football lens. Think more soccer or hockey, forget about things like plays and downs. The gameplay in rugby is constant and when a ball carrier is tackled that’s when it gets interesting, rather than being the end of a “play.” When watching 7s, you naturally watch the ball but the key is spacing and creating overlaps so pay attention to how the defenders are lining up across the field as the ball is switched. Attacks are based on trying different things like spinning the ball wide, kicking ahead and keeping it tight to the scrum or ruck until you find a seam.
I thought 3 of the 4 quarterfinals were very entertaining games, with the exception being the dud the US put on against Australia.
i get some of the basics but how the guy being tackled can lay on the ball, then his teammate picks it up and continues play but the opponent .. apparently?.. can't touch it doesn't make sense to me.
then there are throws from OB to a guy who gets lifted in the air by his teammates... where the opposing team also lifts a guy in the air but he can't touch the ball? so it's like some sort of unnecessary performative scene... and there's some penalty for batting the ball the wrong direction?
i finished a game last night where the clock ran out but the winning team had the ball and instead of extra time or the clock ending the game, a player from the winning team ran around and the announcers were yelling for him to kick the ball OB to end the game. total mystery why that's necessary.
what constitutes a turnover or change of possession? seems like any time a player is tackled, there's a scrum and the tackled player's team gets to keep the ball until they score.
the only time i can recall (and forgive me, i don't watch a lot) a change in possession not resulting from a score is if a guy attempts a pass to a teammate but the ball is intercepted in the air and then i'm not even sure if the intercepting team retains possession.
