Alright, so I wanted to figure out exactly how long a rugby game lasts. You know, just sitting down to watch, I wanted the real scoop, not just guesses.
First, I dug around online. You’d think this would be simple, right? But I found all sorts of stuff about different leagues and age groups. It was a bit of a mess, honestly.
Getting to the Bottom of It
So, I decided to focus on professional rugby, the stuff you see on TV. I started keeping track during a few matches I watched. Here’s what I did:
- Grabbed a stopwatch: Yep, a real, physical stopwatch. Felt old-school, but it worked!
- Started timing at kickoff: As soon as that whistle blew and the ball was kicked, I hit start.
- Paused for stoppages: Every time the play stopped – for injuries, penalties, whatever – I paused the timer.
- Resumed on the restart: When the ref blew the whistle to get things going again, I started the timer back up.
- Half time I will stop the timer.
I did this for both halves of the game. I had to pay close attention! It’s easy to get distracted by the action, but I wanted to be accurate.
My Findings
After doing this for a couple of games, the time read 40 minutes for each half of the game. I did not count the 15 minutes for half-time. So each of my tracked rugby games were 80 minutes of game time. I know I can sit down for almost an hour and a half to watch an entire game.
It was actually kind of fun to do it this way. Made me feel more involved in the game, somehow. And now I have a much better idea of the actual “rugby game time”!No more guessing.
