I love how into rugby you are getting. I coach/ref youth rugby union and happy to answer any questions you might have (if I can, it's complicated)

22:02 Proper context for the 2022 World Cup Final: New Zealand, a nation with an unmatched and frankly ludicrous five Women's Rugby World Cup titles, have found themselves the underdogs in their home world cup against the unstoppable Red Roses juggernaut, a team who have not lost a match since 2018.

It's always great to see someone getting into rugby.

Rugby (Union) is roughly divided in 2 hemisphere :
North with 6 big teams (Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, France & Italy) : they meet each year in the 6 Nations tournament - you should watch the videos titled "Greatest 6Nations moment"

South with 4 big teams (New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Argentina) - who has all world titles since 1987 but 1 (2003). They meet each year in The Rugby Championship - you should also watch highlights.

Club level is also awesome to watch, especially highlights of Super Rugby, URC,  Top 14 & Champions Cup

My 3 favorites nations to watch : New Zealand, South Africa, France (rugby champagne there)
My top clubs : Toulouse (France), Bordeaux (France), Bath (England), Northampton (England), Leinster (Ireland)

Boss, you will LOVE rugby!

When enterning the ruck as an offensive player, your job is to clear the defensive player trying to clear the ball, the best way to do this is dip low, get under the defender and push him put, that's why they are all dripping like that at the ruck

Here in NZ we refer to rugby league as league,and rugby union as rugby

Played a lot as a teenager, had to stop because of the injuries. Its a fun game, but can be very brutal. Especially when people intentionally step on your hands with those studded boots.

Something I've always found funny about Rugby and American football, in Rugby you have to touch the ball down to score a "Try" in American football you don't touch the ball down just get to the line not even past it and score a "Touchdown"

The important part is that there are rules about tackling in Rugby. The fact that there are no protection may seem wild to an American but rugby tackles are not like Grid iron. You cannot shoulder charge you have to wrap with the arms. High tackles are not allowed. Also you cannot tackle a player without the ball. Interference is not a thing although dummy runners do exist. Contact with the head is not allowed. And you cannot tackle in the air. Generally rugby tackles are about taking your opposing players legs out from under him.

8:20 Conversion nuance in union: The conversion is always taken in line with where the try was scored. If you score under the posts, your kicker gets a nice easy kick under the posts. If you score all the way out on the wing, you better hope your kicker brought the good kicking boots. Same thing for penalty kicks. The penalty kick is taken from where the action being penalized happened, so teams ideally want to tighten up their discipline in the middle of the field.

Baseball descends from an old English game called Rounders. You hit a ball with a bat and then run to four bases. The differences are just details.

The scrum is usually the 8 heaviest players from each team known as the "forwards" who wear jerseys 1-8 (all 220 pounds plus), locked together and pushing against the opposition scrum shoulder to shoulder. They used to charge into each other from a couple of feet apart, but this resulted in not a small number of broken necks, so the scrum has been made safer in recent decades. The players now start to push once they're already touching

The ball is contested inside the scrum by the players' feet, no hands are allowed. If one team can control the ball while overpowering their opposition and pushing them backwards, significant ground can be made, or one team can win the ball from the other through a scrum. In fact when scrums occur close to the tryline this often results in a try, with the attacking team pushing over the line and then diving on the ball to score a try. Scrums used to be much more important when rugby was a slower, more physical struggle. A scrum is also very technical and nuanced, despite also being a contest of colossal strength, so the old-school fans like it. Over time the rules and tactics have evolved to favour more dynamic running rugby which is better understood by the casual viewer, results in more points and is arguably more entertaining (traditionalists will disagree). However the scrum is still a vital part of the game for gaining ground, winning possession, scoring tries or setting up for a try, and not least for wearing out the opposition forwards. If one team is starting to fade from exhaustion and their defence is falling apart at the end of 80 minutes, it's often because their scrum was having a bad day and all their forwards are exhausted

I love your enthusiasm for the game and willingness to learn, I think the more you learn the more you will enjoy this game. And disclaimer, don't take this as gospel. I'm not even a big fan of rugby, this is just information you pick up growing up in New Zealand. I've never played the game because with a high school weight of 130 pounds max, and 170 as an adult, I would have been destroyed! They are incredible athletes, famous winger Jonah Lomu was 6 ft 5, 276 pounds, could out-lift the forwards in the gym, AND run 100 metres fast enough to be a competitive sprinter. Players who are huge, fast, agile, and also have exceptional ball skills are common in modern professional rugby, which makes for a hell of a spectacle

8:58 hahaha, I did point back at the screen, well done!

7:00 An important kicking nuance in union (maybe also league, I don't watch league). You can move the ball forward by kicking it forward, but you can't kick it to a player on your team who is standing forward of you. Your teammate chasing the ball down has to be either in line with you or behind you when you kick the ball.

I played rugby for 23 years, Union as my main game, played a bit of League in the summer when Union season ended to be able to play rugby all year round. I covered most positions on the pitch, being a utility player. Played Rugby 10's, 7's, even a touch rugby summer tournament.. If you Americans have any questions about the game, I can help..

Republic of South Africa vs Japan Rugby World Cup 2015 19.09.15   - Whole game free on You Tube, one of the best games ever.

The best intro graphics i've seen in some time

LOVE

Really happy the video advised watching the Womens World Cup Final. Womens rugby has come SO FAR in the past 5-10 years -- the quality of games at the top level is really really good. Super entertaining.

The look of shock when he saw 1314 as Englands reference for football lmao.