Rugby Lingo For The Common Man

Rugby players are a special breed; we love mud, our balls are shaped weird, and we call our touchdowns "tries." Even players and fans that have been around for a few years can get easily confused by some of the ridiculous terms we run around yelling at each other. So to avoid confusion, and to make life easier, we've decided to compile a list of rugby terms which, if placed on the English portion of the SAT, would fail even the biggest nerd.

• Scrum: A 7-on-7 competition where 14 sweaty men (or women) fight over a ball rolled in by the scrum half. A scrum happens when a ball is put back into play after an infraction such as a knock on.
• Ruck: After a player is tackled, players will rush to try and gain possession of the ball; any combination of three players forms a ruck.
• Maul: Imagine a bunch of lions all mauling a deer with a rugby ball, but other deer come and help out the deer being mauled, and in the middle of it all is the ball -- which everyone wants.
• Grubber: A kick that is meant to bounce and roll straight, so the team who kicked it can recover it, it also makes your team do a ton of extra running, and no one likes running.
• Up-and-over (chip kick): An on the run kick that is meant to pop the ball up-and-over (see what I did there) the line of defenders, so the kicker can catch it on the otherside of the defense.
• Forwards: Numbers 1 through 8. These are the big brutish players who do the majority of the hitting, lifting, and pushing. Normally bigger and badder then the backs, unfortunately not as pretty or intelligent.
• Backs: Numbers 9 through 15. The glamour players doing the majority of passing, catching, play making and try scoring. They're kind of like soccer players, but they use their hands.
• Hooker: The player who kicks the ball backwards to his team in the scrums, aka, hooking the ball back.  (No, he's not for sale.)
• Scrum Half: The vital link between the foreword and the back line, scrum halfs tends to be one of the smartest players on the field due to the amount of important decisions he needs to make. Stereotypically tends to be one of the weirder players on a team due to the number of hits to the head they've taken over the years.
• Blood Sub: When a player is covered in blood - his own or someone else's - he must come off the pitch to get cleaned up because rugby players are very clean people. While he's taking his time getting clean, his on-field replacement is called a blood sub.
• Sin Bin: When you've been a bad boy you go to the sin bin. Players are placed in the bin after receiving a yellow card from the ref. After getting the card the player must stand in the bin and think about what they've done because they've been very naughty.
• Hospital Pass: If you don't like a player on your team, throw them a very high pass.  They will have to stop all momentum and reach up for it. This puts them in the perfect position for a player on defense to light that player up, sending them to the hospital.
• Cauliflower ear: Rugby players' ears lose cartilage when they're rubbed by the buttocks of teammates in the scrums.  Cauliflower ear is most frequent in second rows and 8 men whose ears resemble the cruciferous veggie. 
• Liverpool Kiss: aka head butt -- just not as romantic. 
• Pill: A word used to describe the ball.
• Pitch: The field.
• Boots: aka cleats.  It just sounds cooler to say "Boot up men!"
• Dummy: A fake pass to trick the defense. Can also be used to describe the kid on the team who brought his boots, but not his socks.
• Sir: The respectful name to call the referee, even though most players can probably think of a few others.

What was your favorite rugby vocab word? Leave us a comment telling us, or if we missed one! Make sure to leave a rate and subscribe to our blog to get rugby related, news, posts, polls and much more!

Are we not quenching your rugby thirst? Check out USA Rugby for all things rugby in the US, and for a dose of awesome rugby tries and tackles check out Rugby Dump, its just what the doctor ordered.