Rugby originated in England almost 200 years ago. It was first played in the United States around 1820, and  it wasn’t until the 1900s that the first USA international game happened. The sport is still played today by many people. Even students at Carlsbad High School play the sport, filled with rich history. Sophomore Ethan Long explains some of the logistics of the game. 

Ethan Long gives the basics of rugby to help inform about the sport. For example, the sport includes some techniques used in other commonly known sports.

“Rugby is basically like a combination of football, soccer and a little bit of wrestling,” Long said. “From the football aspect there is the tackling and hitting. From soccer you have the kicking element. And wrestling really comes in with the leverage because there is a lot of tackling. Getting low and being able to take down players that are bigger than you is when wrestling comes in.”

While it may be similar to other sports, rugby has numerous unique aspects that make it its own sport.

“The really big difference between rugby and football, tackling wise, is that in rugby you want to have your head behind the person but in football you want to have the head in front of the person,” Long said. “In rugby, I have seen a lot of clips of when you put your head in front of the person who has the ball and is driving their knees up and then making contact with the head. So rugby has more of a safer tackle where they try to get the head out of the equation; it’s more of shoulders and drive.”

Rugby is often seen as a violent sport. When there is a penalty in Rugby, the players create a scrum.

“A scrum is when eight players from each team come together and the scrum half puts the ball in and there is a person in the middle of the scrum that tries to hook the ball backwards and then it goes to the back of the scrum and the scrum half passes it out to the back line,” Long said.

In Carlsbad, there is not only a high school team, but also a club team outside of high school.

“We have a club here, and we competed in the high school season,” Long said. ”We went pretty far with that. I think we got to the quarter finals”

Long wanted to make it aware of how rugby is different from other sports for the team aspect that it requires.

“Rugby is more of a team sport and there are not really star players,” Long said. “The method of plays that you recognize from different teams is based on the teams and not individual players.”