As we say in the office “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”. That’s right, the six nations is back and Rugby fans all across France, England, Wales, Scotland, Italy and Ireland are waiting in anticipation for the first match of the tournament to kick off this Friday night.

But not everyone is looking forward to the six nations, and non-rugby watchers are likely to find themselves bored or excluded in the coming weeks as chatter heats up throughout the tournament.

To keep things inclusive in the workplace, we’ve drafted this quick guide to the tournament to make it easier for everyone to get involved and have a better understanding of what is at stake.

The Goal:

The ultimate goal is to win the Grand Slam (win all games), if you lose any one game this is no longer possible. Failing this the next best is to win the Six Nations which goes to the team with the most points. Other minor cups are at stake such as the Triple Crown (Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England) and all teams want to avoid the wooden spoon (coming last).

The Team

The team is comprised of 15 players on the pitch with 8 reserves. There are 8 “forwards” and 7 “backs”.  The forwards get involved in scrums, lineouts (see Set Piece below) whereas the backs tend to move the ball around, kick, catch and chase though this is more a general rule of thumb. Historically Forwards tended to be larger and heavier than backs and whilst this is still predominantly accurate, backs also tend to be very large physical players in the modern game.

The Set Piece

The set piece refers to a scrum or line out where the game needs to be reset. In the scrum, all 8 forwards bind down against the opposition forwards and try and “hook” the ball onto their side. In a lineout, the ball is thrown from the side line and both teams try and catch it or knock it to their own team.

Points

5 points are awarded for a “try”. A try got its name from an older scoring format where touching the ball down over the “try-line” allowed you to try for points by kicking the ball. Nowadays however you get 5 points for a try and a chance to kick the ball also. If this goes between the two posts you get a further 2 points. Another way to score points is when you take a penalty kick which if successful gains you 3 points.  Lastly you can score points by taking a “drop-goal” which is where you drop the ball to the ground and kick it between the posts gaining 3 points.

The Format

The tournament format is very simple, each team plays every other team once – and any team you play against at home in one year, you play away the following year. You get 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.

The Breakdown

This is a difficult concept to explain, so if anyone mentions it simply reply with “The breakdown is a lottery these days”.

The Gain-line

The game of rugby visually often looks like two opposing lines of players moving against each other. The gain line is the line created by the defenders. You often hear the expression “break the gain line” which is where a player carry’s the ball through the defenders line and “gains” ground. The defending team is simply the team that doesn’t have the ball at that given time and the ball can be “turned over” at any stage in play.

My colleague Ross Wynne will have another blog tomorrow with a list of phrases to get you through the 6 nations (think “that will be an ecumenical matter) and we hope you non-rugby heads found this useful!

Surviving the six-nations in your office by Robert Connolly – visit Legal Jobs Ireland