A try is a poging
HOW many points was a try worth when rugby started? This is a teaser Clive Phelps puts out this week in his regular rugby bulletin.
The answer is none.
"When rugby started, a try didn't score any points. What we call a 'try' today was then only an attempt (a 'try') to 'convert' the 'touch-down' for a 'goal'.
"To 'try' for a 'goal', the rugby ball had to be kicked into the goal (the space between the posts, as in soccer, not over the crossbar the way we do today).
"After some years, the 'touch-down' then did not have to be 'goaled', but just dotted down across a defender's line, as we do today.
"Soon, a try reached the stage where it was awarded three points (the same as a penalty), where the value remained for a long time.
"Most rugby fans would have known a try when it was worth three points? An Afrikaner would roar: 'Hy druk sy drie!'"
Yes, of course. Placing the ball over the opponent's goal line merely gave you the right top "try" a kick at goal. The word had nothing to do with "tri" or "tres".
Following from that, to be anally correct, the Afrikaans for a try should be "poging". But it wouldn't have the right ring.
In fact, as far as I know, the Afrikaans word for a try remains "drie", even though its value has leaped upward.
As Clive says: "As rugby progressed and tries became more appreciated, the value of a try was increased to four points - and then to five points (where we are today).
"The value of a try has always been further increased by converting it. Today it earns an extra two points when converted.
Today, teams in major competitions (like the current four-nations Southern Hemisphere Rugby Championship) can earn 'bonus points' for scoring extra tries.
Yep tries are the thing, and rightly so. You hardly ever see a drop-goal these days (three points) though until about the thirties it was worth four.
Rugby's essential formula: ADP (agter die pale).
Twickers debate
I FIRST learned of the try's new value in England. I'd been on the continent for a while, then returned. I went to watch a club game at Twickenham.
A try was scored. Four points went up on the board. I nudged my neighbour, a stranger.
"Hey, look. The bloody fools have put upofour points."
"So what? It's a try.
"Four points for a try? Since when?"
"Where are you from?"
I told him. People were giving me strange looks.
"I'm sure South African rugby falls under the IRB."
"Of course it does. I was playing club rugby myself just a couple of months ago and a try was three points."
Oh dear. The IRB had increased the value of a try while I was in Sweden. The Swedish newspapers give scant attention to rugby, and even if they had I could not have understood it.
How they laughed at this daft colonial.
Impossible outcome
THEN there was the rugby match where a winning score of 2-0 was recorded, supposedly an impossibility.
It was a third division club game in Durban, back in the fifties. The refs were given a stamped postcard with which to send in the results to the sub-union. This fellow sent in a 2-0 result.
A senior ref phoned him. What was this?
"Well, I awarded a try," the third div ref explained. "But driving home afterwards I had second thoughts. I decided it wasn't a try.
"But there was bugger-all wrong with the conversion."
Confucianism
FROM the coarseness of rugby to the philosophy of Confucius:
· Man who wants pretty nurse, must be patient.
· Lady who goes camping must beware of evil intent.
· Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
· Man who eats many prunes get good run for money.
· War does not determine who is right, it determines who is left.
· Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.
· Man who stand on toilet is high on pot.
· Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.
· A lion will not cheat on wife, but a Tiger Wood.
Tailpiece
What's furry, has whiskers and catches outlaws?
A posse cat.
Last word
Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
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