Rules changes to be proposed.

The IRB intends to change to rules of rugby so as to increase the incentives to score tries and to reduce the influence of penalty kicks.

About time, I say!

A host of proposals are on the discussion table, including a plan to allow penalties for only two offences in the entire game, foul play and offside. This would reduce the number of penalties being kicked and stoppages of play.

I vote for reducing the value of penalty-kicks and drop goals as well. Rugby should be about scoring tries. It will speed the game up and make it more interesting!

Time for a lesson in the tournament rules of the RWC: how does the round system work?

There are 20 teams in the competition and each are allocated into one of 4 pools - hence there are 5 teams in each pool. You'll notice that the 'big guns' of the competition are separated and there's usually no more than one of them in each pool (except for Pool A which includes both England and South Africa).

Each team plays each other once in the pool round. Therefore there will be 40 matches to watch in this first stage of the Cup.

Points are awarded in this round as follows:

Win 4 points
Draw 2 points
4 or more tries 1 point
Loss by 7 points or less 1 point.

When the pool phase is complete the teams are ranked in each pool from 1 - 5. The winner and runner-up from each pool then proceeds to the Quarter-Finals. All the rest go home!

From here we move to the knock-out rounds. The quarters are played like this:

QF 1 - Winner pool B v Runner up pool A
QF 2 - Winner pool C v Runner up pool D
QF 3 - Winner pool A v Runner up pool B
QF 4 - Winner pool D v Runner up pool C

The winners of each Quarter-Final progress to the Semis. The Semis are played like this:

SF 1 - Winner QF1 v Winner QF2

SF 2 - Winner QF3 v Winner QF4

The winners of each Semi proceed to the Final. The losers of each Semi play the consolation game known as the Bronze Final.

Of course, this is all allowing for clear results in each game rather than draws. From the Quarters onwards each match will go into extra time in the case of a draw, whereas the teams share the points in the pool phase.

Whew!

Now you can start predicting who'll be playing whom in each round. Australia is in Pool B and hence will (hopefully) play the runner up from Pool A in the Quarter-Finals. This will be either England or South Africa. Should the Wallabies come 2nd in their pool they will play the winner of Pool A, which will also be either England or South Africa! In this way you can see how the tournament organisers stack the pools so as to guarantee exciting and significant matches in the knock-out rounds.

Of course, one of our minnow friends may make it through to the Quarters - in our pool it will most likely be Wales but could also be our faves the Cherry Blossoms. In Pool C it may be the Italians or the Scots, in Pool D Ireland or Argentina. The winners of Pools C and D will be more than likely be NZ and France (unless one of them has a shocker).

Hence Australia looks forward to a tough Quarter-Final whereas the NZ and the French do not. They can both look forward to the Semis, whereas we will have to work hard to get through.

Let's hope that both the English and the Springboks have lots of injury woes and come 3rd or 4th in their pools :-) Much easier for the Wallabies.

Vivent les Australiens!

What do the numbers mean on the guys' backs?

Each player in a rugby team has a particular match-play role within the team and hence a corresponding position/jersey number.

There are 15 players in the team, eight 'forwards' numbered 1 - 8 and seven 'backs' numbered 9 - 15:

1 Loosehead prop; 2 Hooker; 3 Tighthead prop (the front row)
4 Lock; 5 Lock (the second row)
6 Blindside flanker; 8 'No 8'; 7 Openside flanker (the back row; flankers are also known as breakaways)

9 Scrum-half/half-back
10 Fly-half/five-eighth
11 Left wing; 14 Right wing
12 Inside centre
13 Outside centre
15 Full-back

You may hear guys or the TV commentators refer to 'the pack', 'the midfield', 'the back three' etc. These are collective terms for the forwards (all 8 of whom make up the scrum), the centres (players 12 & 13), and the wingers & full-back.

Generally you'll see players numbered 1 - 8 packing down into scrums and lining up into 'line-outs' to catch the ball, and players 9 - 15 throwing the ball around between them and running with it to the try line.

Forwards are generally big and strong physically, whilst the backs are fast runners.

I usually refer to the forwards as 'the big fat forwards'. Look at a few of them and you'll see what I mean. Big fat necks to support them in the scrum.

I refer to the backs as 'the fancy boys'. They are often better looking than the forwards. The famous Australian back David Campese was famous for not tackling anybody because he liked to keep his jersey clean. This why they're fancy :-)