Say goodbye to the old Lansdowne Road.Originally rugby teams consisted of twenty players made up of seventeen forwards and three full backs whose sole job was to maintain possession if the opposition managed to hack it out the scrum.
Circa 1875 the number of players in a team was reduced to fifteen (ten forwards and five backs).
The player names, positions and numbers worn on shirts are defined by the International Rugby Board (IRB).
The players usually have the following position names and numbers:
1 prop (loose head) 2 hooker 3 prop (tight head) 4 lock 5 lock 6 flanker 7 flanker 8 number 8 9 scrum half 10 outside half or stand-off or fly half 11 left wing 12 left centre or inside centre 13 right centre or outside centre 14 right wing 15 full back
Players will typically line up as follows at a scrum:
Here is a hierarchy of player position naming including collective terms, the corresponding common player numbering shown in parenthesis:
Forwards Tight five/Tight forwards/Front Five Front Row Props (1, 3) Hooker (2) Second Row Locks (4, 5) Back Row/Loose forwards/Loosies Flankers/Wing forwards (6, 7) Number 8 (8) Backs Inside Backs Half-backs Scrum-half/Inside half (9) Fly-half/Outside half/Stand off (10) Inside centre (12) Outside Backs Outside center (13) Back Three www.rugbyfootballhistory.com Left-wing (11) Right-Wing (14) Full-back (15)
- In some countries the term halfback refers solely to the scrum half, while in other countries it applies to both the scrum half and the fly half.
- New Zealand saw advantage in having a fourth player in the three-quarters placing a forward between the half back and the three-quarters. Legend has it that the position was named by deciding that the half back was 4/8ths and the three-quarters 6/8ths, so therefore the new position must be a 5/8ths. When fly half play developed they introduced the first 5/8th and the second 5/8th. Hence the fly half is sometimes referred to as the 1st 5/8, implying a slightly deeper position than halfback and the inside centre is sometimes referred to as the 2nd 5/8 implying a more forward position than a 3/4 back.
- Centres used to be called Centre Three-quarters and Wings, Wing Three-quarters. The term three quarters collectively describes the centers, wings and full-back.
Additional collective terms:
Midfield Centres Three-quarters/Three-quarter backs Wingers and centres Origin of the Half-Back
Originally the rules described three full backs which was later changed to one and the other two players were then stationed at a midpoint between the forwards and the full backs and were to be called half-way backs. In time this was shortened to half backs. Their role and that of the full back continued to be to fall on the ball in the event of the opposition hacking it out of the scrum.
Origin of Fly-Half
In 1878 at Cardiff, in Wales, they developed a short pass to one of the half backs who would then go charging ahead with the ball. He became known as the flying half back which in time was shortened to the fly half. In New Zealand the fly half is sometimes referred to as the 1st 5/8, implying a slightly deeper position than halfback.
Origin of the three-quarters
In the 1880’s the game had spread to the Universities, particularly Cambridge and Oxford, whose input lead to far more thought being put into the game and the style of play that was developed. They were instrumental in the development of the games tactics, the introduction of need to practice and the coaching of the players. In addition they re organised the scrum, developed short passes amongst the forwards and long passes amongst the backs. This led to the need for more players to be placed in the back line between the halves and the full back. The fraction between a half and a whole(full) is three-quarters.
Note: One other theory for why they are called threequarters is that these new positions were called 'quarters' and the fact that three of them were put in this position led to them being known as three-quarters. But this seems unlikely since there is an obvious progression from Half-back (half-way from the from of the scrum to the full back), Five-eighths, three-quarters, full back..
Scotland claim the honour of having first introduced a third three-quarter, against Ireland in 1881.
Origin of the centre and wings
The middle player being called the centre with the two on his outside called wings.
Fouth three-quarter
The introduction of a fourth player into the three-quarters was to a large extent, accidental, with Wales again being allowed to take the honour. In 1885 Cardiff were due to play a tough match away from home and their first choice centre was not available so they promoted one Frank E. Hancock from the second side in his place. Hancock was a great success scoring two vital tries. When the Cardiff selectors sat down to pick their team for the next match they were keen to revert to their original team, but they were most reluctant to drop Hancock, so they compromised by introducing a fourth three-quarter. Within two years Wales had introduced it at international level.
The New Zealanders were quick to see the advantage of having a fourth player in the three-quarters. Their solution was to pull a forward out the pack and put him between the half back and the three-quarters. Their problem was what did they call the new position. Legend has it that consent was reached by deciding that the half back was 4/8ths and the three-quarters 6/8ths, so therefore the new position must be a 5/8ths, a name that has continued to this day in that country. When fly half play developed they introduced the first 5/8th and the second 5/8th.
Origin of the Number 8
This is a two-part question. In summary, the No 8 position evolved in South Africa, but was christened in New Zealand.
a) How did the No.8 evolve?
The position now known as No.8 evolved in South Africa in the 1920s.
Before the Great War a number of scrum patterns were tried. Most involved a three-man front-row in a 3-3-2 or more commonly 3-2-3 pack. Paddy Carolin of the 1906 Springboks claimed to have experimented with a 3-4-1 formation.
New Zealand most notably always used a 2-3-2 system. Their so-called diamond scrum had a rover to act as a detached winging forward who could also double as a second scrum-half. The Law dictating that a scrum must have a three-man front-row did not come into effect until the 1931-2 season.
New Zealand apart, forwards in Test matches were selected primarily for their all-round skills - there were no fixed position in the early days. The first forwards up for a scrum were the first to pack down, although by the early 1900s there was usually one player specifically chosen to hook and one to act as a wing forward.
There is evidence that early Australian and French packs experimented with fixed places for their players under the 3-2-3 formation, but it wasn't until 1923 that Wavell Wakefield, as pack leader, allocated fixed positions to England's forwards. Two were devolved to prop up their hooker, while two formed the second-row. Behind them was a back-row of two wing-forwards either side of a middle man who was then called the lock - the position from which the No 8 has evolved. England won the Grand Slam that year and specialism became the norm in the Home Unions.
Meanwhile in South Africa, Oubaas Markötter of the famous Stellenbosch club developed the 3-4-1 pack formation to curb a fly-half named Bennie Osler, who was the master kicker and tactician for their great rivals at the University of Cape Town. Markötter's new scrum was essentially the 3-2-3 scheme but with the wing-forwards from the back-row flanking the second-row instead - and therefore closer to the fly-half.
That helped to address the Osler problem, but other advantages of the formation became apparent. With only one man at the back, the ball was heeled from the scrum more quickly, while the opposing scrum-half and loose forwards found it harder to disrupt possession. In addition, the inward push from the flankers at the scrum channelled considerable drive through their props and put extra pressure on the opposition hooker.
All South Africa embraced the 3-4-1 scrum and by 1928 it was the preferred formation for the Springboks in their home series with the All Blacks. In the first Test their scrum was a revelation to the New Zealanders, who were demolished 17-0. It wasn't until a few years later, however, that modern back-row play evolved. Markötter considered how to make the best use of a gifted Stellenbosch threequarter named André McDonald, who was not fast enough for a back and not big enough for a forward. McDonald was moved to the solo position at the back of the scrum where he inter-played with his scrum-half in attack and was deployed as a shadow flanker in defence.
So the prototype for the No.8 evolved in South Africa as a much looser player than his forerunner, the lock. South Africa still sought strong forwards who could push from the back of the scrum, but attacking and defensive duties for which the prime attribute was mobility became part of the job description.
The Springboks toured Britain/Ireland in 1931-32, demonstrating the new scrum formation and back-row tactics to the Home Unions, and in 1933 Australia saw them for the first time when they were beaten in a series in South Africa. By the time war broke out in 1939, most of the world's rugby-playing nations had bowed to Springbok supremacy, adopting the 3-4-1 pack and refining back-row tactics. The main dissenters were the Scots, who persisted with the old 3-2-3 system until the mid 1950s.
b) When was the term No.8 first used?
It was not until the 1940s that the expression No.8 became recognised worldwide as part of rugby's lexicon.
Finding a common name for the sole player at the back of the 3-4-1 scrum seems to have taken some time. In the Home Unions he was still referred to as the lock, as he had been in the 3-2-3 system. Australian reports of the 1937 Tests against the Springboks refer to the position as anchor-man or solo-lock. South Africans called him the eighthman (as many of the old-timers out there still do), in New Zealand he was usually the back-row and to the French he was le troisième ligne centre.
Numbering of players in Tests was a haphazard affair until the 1960s. In the Five Nations, some teams numbered from 1 to 15 from the back, starting with the fullback and finishing with a flanker (so that the back-row man was number 14). France and Ireland often numbered in reverse starting from the front-row, making the middle-man of the loose trio number 7. Wales even used letters throughout the 30s and 40s making him letter N! Players on tour were numbered 1 to 30 and kept their allocated numbers for Tests.
Old Test programmes show that the earliest efforts to number the back-row man with jersey eight were in New Zealand's South Island during the 1930s, after their 2-3-2 scrum was outlawed. For NZ v Australia at Dunedin in 1936 and NZ v SA at Christchurch in 1937 the All Blacks' back-row man wore this number. Abbreviating the South African term eighthman to No.8 originated there and the noted New Zealand rugby historian, Arthur Swan, was among the first to refer to him in print as the "number-eight". When post-war Tests resumed in 1946, New Zealand led the way in regularly numbering their back-row man in the eight jersey.
Curiously, South Africa's Hennie Muller, who played Test rugby between 1949 and 1953 and was universally hailed as the definitive eighthman of his day, never wore an eight shirt in a Test, although by 1951 the British press were referring to him as the team's No 8.
It was not until the 1960s that the shirt number universally matched its position's name in Test matches.
References:
1. The World of Rugby - John Reason & Carwyn James Pub. 1979. 0563162805
2. A History of Rugby - Reyburn, Wallace Pub 1971. 0213004860
3. No.8 John Griffiths Scrum.com Feb 1st, 2009.