First of all, you need to remember – rugby is divided into three different subspecies: rugby 15, rugby 13 and rugby 7. The number at the end indicates the number of people on the field. Now let’s figure out what the difference is.
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Rugby 15 or rugby union . The classic version of the game, it is also the most popular. 15 rugby players in each team enter the field. The players are numbered strictly from 1-15, while the personal number for each player is not assigned, it depends on the position on the field.
The match lasts two halves of 40 minutes. Unlike football, rugby has a “clean time”. If necessary, the chief arbiter of the meeting stops time. Most often this happens during substitutions, when an athlete is injured or with the help of a video referee. The second time-related feature is overtime. He is not in this sport as such, but the match does not stop along with the siren about the end of time. The teams continue to play exactly until the moment the ball leaves the field of play or the attacking team makes a mistake.
At the national team level, the main tournaments in this subtype are: World Cup, Rugby Championship and Six Nations Cup. Everything is clear with the World Cup, just like the football championship, it is held every 4 years. The Rugby Championship and the Six Nations Cup are annual tournaments for two different hemispheres.
Until 2011, the Three Nations Cup was played, in which the strongest rugby powers – New Zealand, Australia and South Africa – took part. Argentina joined them in 2012 and the tournament was renamed. By the way, the Argentine national team is an excellent example of the absence of sensations: in the Championship tournament, the South Americans played 33 matches and won only 3 of them.
The Six Nations Cup has been held since 2000, when the Italian national team was admitted to the elite European rugby family. However, representatives of this country have never won this tournament. Representatives of the British Isle and the French national team continue to dominate here.
Rugby 13 or rugby league . A simplified version of classic rugby popular in Australia and England. In addition to the smaller number of athletes on the field, there are some concessions in the rules. So, this type is distinguished by a high rate of play. The key feature is the time limit for the attack. Each team has 5 attack phases. During this time, the attack must go all the way to the in-goal, if this cannot be done, then the ball, by means of a forward strike, goes into the possession of the other team.
Rugby 7 . Olympic version. The fight is held according to the rules of big rugby, but there are only 7 people from each team on the field. The rules for rugby sevens and rugby fifteen are the same.
The game is very energy consuming and traumatic. It is not for nothing that the Rugby 15 World Cup has been taking place for two months: it is physically very difficult to play more than one match a week. For this, rugby-7 was introduced, where the tournament takes place in 2-3 days. Each game day, teams have several fights. In this variety, preference is given to fast players, rather than physically strong and powerful ones. Purposefully, “subspecies 7” are not practiced – players from rugby-15 often go there during various tournaments.
Types of rugby bets
There are standard betting options for all varieties of this sport: bets on the outcomes (victory of one of the teams or a draw), handicap and total .
In types “15” and “7” 5 points are awarded for an attempt. A team can earn 2 more points for successfully realizing a free kick after a try. She will earn 3 points if she scores a free kick or scores from a field in the H-shaped goal.
If in subspecies “15” all variants of scoring are used equally often, then in rugby-7, due to the small number of players on the field, teams most often use only a combination of attempt + implementation.
In rugby 13, an attempt is awarded 4 points and 2 more points for a successful free kick. An accurate field kick into the H-shaped goal net will score only one point. Usually, this option is used at the end of the meeting in order to achieve the required difference in the score.
When placing bets on rugby union, it is worth remembering about a very serious division into favorites and outsiders. A weak team has almost no chance of winning the match. For example, in 8 World Cups, the European team managed to win the title only once: in 2003, the England team did it. Otherwise, only elite countries win: New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
In rugby sevens there is no such division, because it is much easier to collect 7 good players than 15. This is used by small countries where the classic version of the game is very popular (15). So, the 2016 Olympic Games were won by the Fiji men’s team: the population of this country does not even reach a million people.
In the classic version of the game, the current score is of great importance, because for the achievement within the match, the team receives additional points. For a victory – 4 points. In addition, if you managed to make 4 or more attempts, you get an additional point. In total, you can earn 5 points in one match. There is also an incentive for the losing side: if the difference in the score is less than 7 points, then the team will receive one point. So until the last seconds, both teams are set to attack.
How to place rugby bets correctly
Since this sport is quite traumatic, the pre-match analysis of each meeting must take a lot of time. As we said, teams rarely play more than one match a week. When betting on Rugby 15 and Rugby 13, it is extremely important to study the statistics of the opposition and use it in your betting strategy. Sensations are not very frequent here.
Handicap betting in this sport is an unpredictable thing. The main point of scoring occurs with the ball into the in-goal. For the attempt, the team receives 5 points and then gets the right to a free kick at the cost of 2 points. And here is the main nuance. The closer the ball was brought to the center of the field, the easier it is for the kicker to hit the H-shaped goal. Therefore, the main forces are concentrated in the center of defense. It is a little easier to bring the ball from the edge.
Accordingly, if a team scores 4 attempts, it scores 20 points. A free kick is awarded for each successful attempt – a total of 8 extra points. If the kicker scores each hit, then the total is 28 points. So much for the price of a miss.
Rugby is a fairly effective game. Usually at least one of the teams scores 20+ points per match, so the total total is most often in the region of 38-42 points.
When choosing bets, special attention should be paid to weather conditions, which can play a decisive role in the effectiveness of the match. It should be borne in mind that bad weather or its “consequences” is not a reason for canceling the match, which means that it is more difficult to play in such cases: usually fewer goals are scored, but the number of injuries, on the contrary, may increase.
Due to the high injury rate, by the way, many players prefer to bet on rugby in live mode, that is, right during the match, since injuries can change a lot during the game, and here it is important to be on the alert and react to what is happening as quickly as possible.
The strategy for betting on rugby can be different depending on the time of betting (prematch or live), however, if you are just starting to get interested in betting on this sport, it may also be useful to pre-study the advice of those who already have good experience in this. We remind you that no advice and forecasts can be considered a win-win, so we do not recommend blindly following them: any recommendations should be used only as an additional source of useful information.