Rugby is a game that requires all 15 players to participate in both attack and defense. The four basic non-negotiable skills that all players must develop are catching, passing, running and tackling.

Beyond that, rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes, with different skillsets needed for different positions. Whether you are the all round athletic boy, the tall lanky girl, the small footballer, the fast skinny one or the short stocky one, rugby has a place for you.

Generally speaking, players will learn and practice these specialized skills as part of either the forward pack or the backline.

Let’s break that down a little more.

Forwards

Players in the forward pack are responsible for winning and keeping possession of the ball. Specialized set pieces such as line-outs and scrums that serve to restart play are the exclusive domain of the forwards and require specialized training.

Forwards wear numbers 1 through 8, and their positions are denoted by where they play in the scrums.

Typically, forwards will be larger and stronger than the backs.

• Front Row 
  Nobody really knows what goes on in the scrum other than the front row, and they aren’t telling.
  • Props (1 and 3) — While props often serve as battering rams when carrying the ball, they perform a critical role when restarting play at scrums and line-outs (ie the “set pieces”). Props prevent the scrum from twisting and moving backwards, and support the weight of the hooker in scrums. In line-outs, they lift other players who contest for possession of the ball. Thus, props must have strong necks, shoulders, and legs. The 2 props on the team can be further specialized as loosehead (1) and tighthead (3) based on whether their heads are partially or fully bound into the scrum (or whether they pack down to the left or right of the hooker – lefty loosey and righty tighty).
  • Hooker (2) — the hooker has a key role in winning possession in both line-outs and scrums. In the scrums they hook the ball from the center of the scrum back to the other forwards. In line-outs they throw the ball to the jumpers. In each case timing and accuracy are critical.
    The hooker and his or her two props together make up the front row of a scrum.
• Second Row
  The powerhouse pair of the team. The front row and second row together are also known as the tight five.
  • Locks (4 and 5) — also known as “the engine room”. In scrums, locks are directly behind the front row and provide most of the pushing power. In line-outs they are often the primary catchers of the balls thrown in by the hooker. They are often tall and powerful with a great vertical jump and good ball-handling skills. Although not usually particularly fast, they are dangerous on attack as their size and power makes them a challenge to defend against.
• Back Row (or loose forwards or breakaway unit)
  The flankers and the number 8 often work together as a unit to create mayhem and chaos in both attack and defense.
  • Flankers (6 and 7) — Flankers are usually the best athletes and tacklers on the field and have a great all-around mix of size, speed, endurance and ball-handling. They are often called “wing forwards”.Unlike the front row and second row players (the tight 5), flankers can detach from the scrum with ease. Thus they play an important role in defending, supporting and contesting for the ball at the breakdown. The 6 is usually the blindside flanker, who is the bigger of the two and does a lot of unseen graft work whereas the 7 is the openside and is often to be found jackalling at the breakdown to steal possession of the ball, or running with the ball and supporting the backs in the wider channels.
  • Number 8 (8) — Number 8s anchor the back of the scrum in the middle of the back row, and share many characteristics with flankers. They are usually mobile, dynamic, and powerful with the handling and football skills to control the ball at the back of the scrum. The number 8 is the only forward allowed to pick the ball up from the base of the scrum, and his or her partnership with the scrum half is one of many “teams within a team” within a rugby side.

Backs

Players in the backline are responsible for making best use of the ball that the forwards secure and scoring tries. Using strength, speed and cunning, backs score most of the points in a match and will have at least one player who is adept at kicking out of hand and off the tee (note that most forwards will claim to be amazing kickers. Just nod and grin when they say this – it is most likely not true).

Backs wear the numbers 9 through 15 with their positions denoted by where they line up in the backline.

Typically, backs will be smaller and faster than the forwards.

• Halfbacks
  Work together to determine tactics and control the game.
  • Scrum half (9) — The scrum half is the link between the forwards and backs. As such they are key decision makers and often function as the eyes and ears of the forwards (in return for their protection). Scrum halves constantly follow the play and determine when the backs get the ball from the forwards, and they also feed the ball into the scrum and must coordinate their timing with the hooker. Scrum halves are often the smallest people on the field, but they are scrappy and vocal, and touch the ball more than any other position. They need to have excellent endurance, speed, vision, passing and kicking skills in equal measure.
  • Fly half (10) — The fly half (also known as the outside half, the standoff or the first five-eighth) is the main playmaker and general on the field. The scrum half and fly half work together to control the game, and the fly half is very vocal in organizing and managing the backline. He or she is the center of most attacks and decides when to run, pass or kick. Their handling, kicking, distribution and tactical decision making skills are excellent. The fly half is one of the smallest players, and opposing back rows like nothing better than to run at them so they have to be solid tacklers on defense. The fly half is often the main goal kicker on the team.
• Centers 
  The center pair are strong and fast on attack, have excellent distribution skills and close the midfield channel with hard tackling on defense. The best centers have spatial awareness and can pass the ball before, during, and after contact to exploit and confuse the defense.
  • Inside Center (12) — The inside center (also known as the second five-eighth) plays directly outside the fly half and sometimes functions as a second playmaker. The inside center will often run hard and straight to punch holes in the opposing back line. They should be skilled in running good angles off the fly half, strong in contact and adept at offloading the ball in the tackle. They are strong tacklers.
  • Outside Center (13) — The outside center is looking to exploit the space as the ball moves down the backline away from the forwards.They are hard tacklers, and their key skills are finding and exploiting gaps in the midfield, using dynamic acceleration to make outside breaks, and using their passing skills to put the fullback and wings into space.
• Back Three
  Work as a unit to cover the backfield on defense. Usually the fastest players on the team.
  • Wing (11 and 14) — The wings are the fastest players on the team with great acceleration and side-stepping ability. They live on the edges of the field where they can use their pace to exploit the wide open spaces. On defense, they must work with their fullback to cover and defend the back field. The wings have to cover both the outside runs (must not allow the ball carrier to get past them) while remaining in position to cover any kicks by the opposition.
  • Full back (15) — The full back is the last line of defence. They line up as sweeper behind the other backs and adjust their position as needed to tackle ball carriers who break the defensive line while also covering kicks from the opposition.The full back must be an excellent tackler, but also has to be brave in catching the high ball and have good kicking skills to clear their lines. On attack, the full back is a flashing blade. They can see the entire play and decide where and when to join the back line to make breaks or to help create mismatches and overlaps.

As with most sports, the aim of rugby is very simple – score more points than your opponents. These points can be scored in one of four different ways, which we will lay out below:

• Try (5 points). Crossing your opponent’s goal line and placing the ball down within their “in goal” area. This is very similar to a touchdown in football, except you have to touch the ball to the ground in order to score. This is the preferred method of scoring in rugby, and teams will attack by passing and running the ball with the intention of scoring tries.
• Conversion (2 points). Kind of like the extra point after a touchdown in football. After a try has been scored, it can be “converted” by placing the ball upright on a kicking tee and kicking it through the posts and over the bar from a point parallel to where the try was scored. The scores an extra 2 points, and is known as kicking the conversion, or converting the try. One famous conversion kick taken from close to the sideline (or touchline) in the last minute to win an International rugby match back in the 1970s is often referred to as the “greatest conversion since St Paul”.
• Penalty kick (3 points). When a penalty is awarded, the attacking team may opt to take a kick at goal from the point of the penalty. A player from the attacking team will place the ball upright on a kicking tee and aim to kick the ball between the posts and over the bar. Really good kickers can kick penalty goals from anywhere in their opponent’s half of the field (and sometimes beyond).
• Drop goal (3 points). At any point in open play, a player on the attacking team may opt to drop the ball so that the point hits the ground, and kick it on the bounce. This is known as a drop kick. If the ball is drop kicked and goes between the posts and over the bar then the team scores 3 points. This is known as a drop goal, and it is usually (but not always) the flyhalf who attempts it. This is the least common method of scoring, but can sometimes be a useful way to accumulate points.

Following a score, play is restarted from the halfway line and the ball is drop kicked to the team that just scored (unless you’re playing 7s, when the team that scored will kick off).