Badger's Rugby Compendium

Badger's Rugby Compendium is a humorous glossary of over 500 terms, slang and jargon, all the lingo from the inner world of rugby explained with witty definitions and illustrations to amuse the dedicated fan and enlighten the rugby-curious.

If you had never seen a rugby match, say you were born and bred on Pluto but you were fluent in English, on tuning into a match you might ask yourselves three questions: i) Why are all these people rolling around in the mud? ii) Why are they so cross with each other? iii) Why is the commentator talking in Klingon?

Many people let rugby pass them by as they do cricket and other sports built upon a complex set of rules. To understand the rules, to take some pleasure from a sport, as anything else in life, you must understand the language by which it is described. To go one level deeper and take joy from the sport and immerse yourself in its culture, traditions and nuances, you must have a working knowledge of its jargon and slang. What do they say? The limit of my world is the limit of my words.

'He's a hoisted a bomb there, buried him with a snotter, gone in for the jackal, hands all over the egg, given him a facial, and kicked off the handbags. He's getting pinged here and he's got himself ten minutes riding the pine or I'm Bill Beaumont.' There's only one reaction a rugby stranger might have to that: 'You what?' I mean, no wonder the rugby-curious viewer keeps flicking the remote.

The aim of this little glossary of rugby union terminology, banter and vernacular is to offer some light entertainment for the devoted fan, but also a little enlightenment for the uninitiated and bemused.