A try, or goal, is scored. Rugby has no timeouts, so play resumes immediately. The Pelicans play Union, or amateur, rugby. Teams of 15 face off for two 15-minute halves of running, tackling, passing and kicking. Halftime lasts five minutes.
Players wear metal-cleated leather boots, shorts and collared shirts.
Rugby is said to have begun during an intramural soccer game in 1823 at the Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, when William Webb Ellis, by all accounts a poor kicker, defied soccer rules, picked up the ball and ran. The game has been fast and free since. Like football, its American cousin that evolved from rugby, the sport is a physical, ball-handling game that makes soccer, a kicking game, seem downright genteel. The field is roughly the same length as an American football field and about 10 yards wider. The rugby ball, like its American counterpart, is elliptical, only larger and a bit softer.