Born at the United Kingdom at the end of the 19th Century, Rugby was already played at the second edition of the Olympic Games, in Paris 1900. It was also part of the programme of London 1908, Antwerp 1920 and Paris 1924 Olympic Games, always in the fifteen players’ version. In Rio 2016, the sport returns to the Olympic Programme with the seven-a-side version, a variation very popular all over the globe.
The game is played in a grass and rectangular field with two H goals at the pole, formed by two posts and one crossbar. Every game has two halves of seven minutes each. The objective is to lead the ball over the opponent goal line, but with one detail: it is not allowed to throw the ball with the hand if the partner is beyond the line of the ball.
There are four methods of scoring:
- Try (5 points): the ball is touched to the ground on or over the goal line.
- Conversion Goal (2 points): after a player scores a try, the player’s team scores a goal between the posts and over the crossbar.
- Penalty Goal (3 points): if a foul play is committed, the benefited team scores a kick between the posts and over the crossbar.
- Drop goal (3 points): a player scores a dropped goal by kicking a goal from a drop kick in general play.
