FOOTBALL 



FOOTBALL 



conceal the code the numbers which actually 

 carry the message are usually preceded or 

 followed by others. Thus it might be agreed 

 that the third number should be the significant 

 one. A starting signal is also sometimes used 

 which indicates to the attacking side the in- 

 stant the play is to start. 



The officials of a football game in the United 

 States are the referee, the umpire, the lines- 

 man and the field judge. Each has duties 

 assigned by the intercollegiate rules. The first 

 two -are mainly concerned with the enforce- 



ment of the regulations, penalties for violating 

 which are given by moving the ball a specified 

 number of yards toward the goal which the 

 side in error is defending. 



The game, unless shortened by agreement, 

 lasts an hour, and is divided into four periods 

 of fifteen minutes each, with a one-minute 

 intermission between the first and second and 

 the third and fourth periods, and a fifteen- 

 minute intermission between the second and 

 third. Delays in the play are not counted as 

 part of the game. 



Canadian Rugby and English Rugby 



In spite of the fact that English Rugby 

 rules formed the basis for the game in both 

 the United States and Canada, a visitor to 

 either nation from the other finds football 

 bewilderingly strange. Because of the differ- 

 ences in rules many details of good play in 

 the one country would be poor policy in the 

 other. Thus, when an American sees a Cana- 

 dian kick the ball while running with it he 

 is astonished, but no more than a Canadian 

 who watches an American runner allow him- 

 self to be tackled with the ball instead of 

 passing it to another of his team. 



The Canadian Game. One of the principal 

 points which distinguish the Canadian game 

 is the rule forbidding interference; no player 

 in front of the runner is allowed to protect 

 him from tacklers. Another distinction is that 

 off-side players, those who have been in front 

 of the ball when it was kicked or thrown for- 

 ward, must not come within three yards of an 

 opposing player attempting to make a free 

 catch of the ball, even if it has already bounded 

 on the ground. The scrimmage line may con- 

 sist of only three players, and the ball is put 

 into play by heeling off a backward kick with 

 the heel. Fourteen men belong to each team. 



Scoring is as follows: for a try and goal, 

 six points; for a try, five; for a drop-kick, 

 three; for a drop-kick or place-kick after a 

 penalty, two; for a safety-touch, two; for a 

 rouge, one. A try corresponds to a touchdown 

 in American football. If a team is downed 

 with the ball behind its own goal line, a safety- 

 touch is counted against it if it has carried 

 the ball there itself, a rouge if the other side 

 has sent or carried it over the line. A rouge 

 is also scored when a team secures the ball 

 more than twenty-five yards behind its op- 

 ponent's goal, or both behind the goal and 

 outside of the touchline (side line) . 



Penalties are awarded in various ways, in- 

 cluding giving to the opponents the right to 

 attempt a drop-kick or place-kick unhindered. 



The Rugby championship in Canada is de- 

 cided more definitely than in the United States, 

 where it is always largely a matter of indi- 

 vidual opinion. Both college and club teams 

 are organized into leagues which play round- 

 robins. At the end of the season the league 

 winners meet for the national championship. 



English Rugby. There is little difference 

 between the original game of football and the 

 Canadian game just described. Two features 

 of it which have been abolished in both the 

 United States and Canada are the old fash- 

 ioned scrummage and the throw-in. The latter 

 is used when the ball goes out of bounds at 

 the side of the field. Instead of the ball being 

 brought back to the field and put into play 

 by a scrummage, it is thrown in between the 

 two teams, each lined up at right angles to the 

 side of the field. In a scrummage the for- 

 wards, eight of each team, gather around the 

 ball and push each other with their heads. 

 Each side endeavors to heel the ball into a 

 position where its backs may seize and carry 

 it. Neither side has definite possession of the 

 ball as in the two American varieties of the 

 game. There are fifteen men on an English 

 team. 



English Rugby is played principally for cups 

 and for national and international champion- 

 ships. England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales 

 meet each other every year, and since 1906 

 France, too, has figured in the international 

 matches. New Zealand, South Africa and 

 Australia develop teams which usually defeat 

 those of the mother country, and during the 

 War of the Nations there was interesting com- 

 petition among the soldiers from various parts 

 of the empire. 



