This section is targeted at people new to the game of rugby league and will hopefully provide an in depth education to the rules and the sport in general.

When kicking the ball, you must remember that you can kick it whenever you want. You dont have to kick it on the last tackle if you dont want to. Some players like to kick early if they see a chance for their players.

When kicking the ball, remember that it must bounce inside the field of play if you are going for touch (the sideline). If you kick it and it goes out of play on the full, the other team will get the ball and six tackles from where you kicked it. Imagine if you kicked it out on the full from your own 10 metre line! If you kick the ball and it goes to a player who is inside the field of play on the full, the referee wont do anything, as you haven’t broken any rules.

Tactic: If you kick from your own 40 metre line and it bounces into touch inside the opponent’s 20 metre line, you get the ball back. Nice, isn’t it?

Scrums

Scrums can look funny or strange to people who dont know the game of rugby. But, hopefully, you will gain some knowledge of scrums and their purpose here. But before I tell you what scrums are, I will tell you what makes scrums happen.

Scrums happen in the following instances:

- When a player has lost the ball forward, a scrum is placed. However, if the other team picks up the ball before the player who lost it did, the referee rules play on. No scrum is needed.
- When the ball has been kicked out into touch (not on the full)
- When the ball has been thrown forward. If the ball has been thrown forward deliberately, a penalty is awarded against the side who threw the ball. A scrum consists of all the forwards on the team, plus the scrum half (no. 7). There are 6 forwards, so there will be 12 players in the scrum. The players will bind together in a 3-2-1 combination, as seen underneath.

There are six players here. All players have an important role in the scrum, but the most important player here is the Hooker. Don’t worry about the name, it is not what you think.

If the other team lost the ball, kicked the ball into touch or threw the ball forward, you will get the ball in the scrum. The scrum half will stand on side of the scrum and put it in the middle of the scrum. The Hooker then has to put one of his foot forward and hook the ball back behind, so that it comes behind the no.13. After he has hooked it, the other players in the scrum can help get it back, but they may only use their feet. However, the no.13 can pick up the ball seeing as he is the last player. Usually though, it is the no 7 who will come around and pick it up.

How to bind: The first row, consisting of no 9 (middle), no 10 (left) and no 8 (right) will bind first. No 8 and 10 are called props. They bind on tightly on both sides of the hooker, leaving no gaps between them. They bind tightly together and pack down behind the front row, putting their heads in the gaps between the hooker and the props. The final member is the loose forward. They pack down behind the second row forwards, putting their head in between the two second rows.