Rugby: From a Mother's Perspective Quiz

Answer: No

The only protective equipment that rugby players are allowed to wear are mouth guards and scrum caps. Scrum caps are cloth and provide protection from the rubbing and bumping of heads and ears that occurs in a scrum. Not all players choose to wear them.

Answer: Lock

The position a person plays on a rugby team is often dictated by their physical appearance. Locks are forwards, and tend to be among the tallest, but not the heaviest members of the squad. They are part of the second row in the scrum, and tend to be the players who jump for the ball at line-outs.

They are usually assisted in this by being lifted by the two props. The other lock on the team wears the number five.

Answer: Prop

The two props are known as the loosehead prop (wearing number one) and the tighthead prop (wearing number three). These names come from their positions in the front row of the scrum. The tighthead prop has his head down between that of his team's hooker and one of the opposing team's players. The loosehead prop is positioned as to have his head free on one side.

Answer: To put the ball back into play

The forwards from both teams link arms at the shoulders, lower their heads and form what looks to be a big wagon wheel with two rows of players. The scrum-half of one of the teams throws the ball into the centre of this, and the two teams try to push each other away from the ball.

The hookers from each team try to hook the ball with their feet, pushing it back and out of the scrum where the scrum-half has run back to pick it up. This may be an over-simplified explanation, but it is essentially what happens.

A faster way to get the ball back into play is a line-out.

Answer: The player who tries to hook the ball out of the middle of the scrum

The hooker tends to be one of the shorter players on the team, but he or she does play a very dangerous position, because things can get pretty scary in the middle of the scrum, with all that pushing back and forth. They are also usually the player who throws the ball in during a line-out.

Answer: Knock-on

If a player drops a ball or hits the ball forward, they cannot pick it up again until after someone else has picked it up. If a player does this, the referee will call the play and a scrum usually results. Players are not allowed to pass forward either, and must pass to teammates behind them. A forward pass will result in a scrum as well.

Answer: A try

For reasons that I do not understand, scoring in rugby is called a try (but he didn't just try, he succeeded!) and is worth five points. After a try is made, the kicker has a chance to convert the try for two more points. The conversion has to be attempted from a point in the field that's in line with where the ball was touched down. For this reason you will often see rugby players running with the ball behind the goal line, trying to line it up between the posts.

Answer: No

By putting the ball down behind his own goal line, he has just forced a 22 drop out. His team is now able to kick the ball from their 22 metre line, which is safer than having a scrum or a line-out that close to their goal line.

Answer: A maul

The two most important factors in a maul is that players are on their feet, and one of them is in possession of the ball. If the ball is on the ground, and the players are engaged in a similar pushing match (only this time they are allowed to use their feet to try and get possession of the ball), this would be called a ruck. Mauls sometimes end up with everyone extricating themselves from a heap, where the bottom man is often quite crushed.

Answer: Sin bin

The sin bin is a bench, or sometimes a couple of chairs, where players who have been yellow carded go to sit out their time. Unlike a hockey penalty box, there is no divider between players who might have both been carded for fighting, and they must sit amicably together without restarting the fight.