Lance wrote:Okay, I found a game: Bay of Plenty vs. Waikato, which will be followed by Southland vs. North Harbour.
How long do I have to watch before I get it?
This sounds like ITM, the New Zealand domestic rugby union competition.
A long time to get everything, but probably not too long to get the basics. Relative to American football, the most important things are probably:
(i) No forward pass - the severity of the penalty depends on whether it was intentional or not.
(ii) When the ball carrier is tackled, the play continues - the ball carrier must release the ball immediately.
(iii) When you cross the try line (the equivalent of the goal line in American football), you must ground the ball to score a try (five points). No grounding, no score.
(iv) After scoring a try, the scoring team kicks for another two points. The kick is taken straight back from where the try was scored, so if a try is scored way over by the side of the field (near the "touch" line), the kick will be more difficult. So when a ball carrier scores a try, and isn't under pressure, you often see them run towards the center of the try line before grounding the ball, to make the kick easier. But if they're under pressure, they just score the try any way they can.
(v) Minor infractions result in a scrum. More serious infractions result in a penalty kick, which may be used to try to kick between the goal posts for three points. If it's too far (or if they really need a try), then typically the ball will be kicked "into touch" (over the side lines), and the kicking team then throws the ball in with a lineout at the place where the ball went out.
(vi) If the ball goes out the side (into touch), the team that didn't touch the ball last throws back in with a lineout. (Exception - if a team kicks the ball into touch on a penalty kick, the kicking team throws in for the lineout.) If a team kicks the ball, and it bounces on the field before going into touch, the lineout is where the ball went out. If it is kicked directly into touch, then the lineout is where the kick took place if it was from in front of the kicking team's 22 metre line (so no gain in territory because of the kick). However, if the kick was behind the 22 metre line, then the lineout takes place where the ball went into touch.
(vii) Two halves of forty minutes each, when the clock runs out, the play continues until the ball is dead.
You'll figure out the rest
This is union. For league, the main differences that occur to me are, thirteen players instead of fifteen, and when the ball goes down, the attacking team simply restarts play (so no struggle for possession). This is up to some limit, so it's like American football, where you have a certain number of "downs" to advance the ball. Also, a try is four points in league, not five.
