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Learning the intricacies of Rugby
By Scott Parish Staff Reporter

The Central Washington University men’s rugby team has had years of success as a program. This success includes league championships in 2001, 2002 and 2003 as well as a Sweet 16 and an Elite eight appearance. The Central rugby club’s success has drawn the attention of many central students; they draw a large an intense crowd of.

Rugby is a brutal contact sport, with athletes blasting into each other as if they were wearing full football pads and playing in all conditions year-round. But as exciting as the game is, it’s a complex game and can sometimes be confusing to a new spectator.

If you ever happen to read an article in the newspaper about rugby, you might find yourself confused with the language the writer uses to describe what happened in the game. To clear things up a bit, here’s an explanation on some of the commonly used terms from rugby that a reader may not understand.

Scoring in rugby is somewhat similar to scoring in American football, but instead of an end-zone rugby fields have a tri-zone. If a player crosses the tri-line for the tri-zone he must press the ball against the ground exerting pressure on the top of the ball in order to receive points.

Each tri is worth five points. After the tri is scored the team is allowed to kick the ball through a set of field goal uprights which is also similar to American football.

The difference in rugby is that where you cross tri-line is where the team’s kicker can kick from. He can move the ball back down the field, but may not move it from side to side.

For example, if a tri is scored and the ball is placed on the sideline, the kicker must kick from that sideline. These kick attempts after the tri is scored are called conversions and they are worth two points.

Another way to score is by kicking the ball through the uprights off a kicking tee after the other team has been called for a penalty. These penalty kicks are worth three points each.

Also, a player is allowed to drop kick the ball through the post during the game.The player can drop the ball, let it hit the ground and then kick it through the uprights. This is called a drop goal and is a very difficult way to score. A drop goal is worth three points. The last thing that needs to be clarified is that rugby is played on a pitch not a field like in American football.

These are the terms most commonly used in rugby stories and hopefully this will help make stories on rugby a little less confusing.

Fall season winds down
The Central Washington University men’s rugby team finished their fall season on a fine note.

"The final game was the best game we played all year, against the best team we’ve played all year," senior fly-half Mike Merrill said.

The team finished the season against St. Mary’s College out of California who is currently 8 in the nation. The Wildcats tied St. Mary’s 22-22 in a game that went into overtime. In overtime St. Mary’s was the first to score, but on the last play of the game freshman wing Mike Nelson scored a tri to tie the game.

"We played more like a team, we really stuck together," senior flanker Adam Ralston said.

The rugby team will start practicing again late in January for spring. Their season will begin shortly after that.