That fable pertains to Cal’s alleged supply of athletic scholarships for rugby union players. There is plenty of reason to believe such a story, as Cal has won the national collegiate Division I title all but five of the 29 times it has been contested since its 1980 foundation. The last time someone else won was 2003, and before that 1990. In addition to its stranglehold on the college game, Cal boasts not one, but two former U.S. national coaches and players on the U.S. national side and professional European club contracts.

They also have symbolic varsity status, which affords them some access to special advising and training resources, but what they don’t have is player scholarships. Although the varsity status has been raised as an excuse for Cal’s dominance by some, Cal raises its money and recruits its players without the benefit of the athletic scholarships that feed American varsity teams in most sports across most campuses nationwide (including many other Cal varsity teams).

Now and again, one hears talk of scholarships at Cal, but it’s a tale. Cal emphasizes its lack of scholarships in its own promotional material. If you don’t believe that, you can consider the case of touted American football prospect Cole Huntley, who recently decided to turn away college scholarship offers in the gridiron game for a chance to play rugby at Cal sans athletic scholarship.

There’s plenty of great things behind Cal’s success, but scholarships are not among them. Armchair Playmaker reckons the winning has a lot more to do with what the players are choosing to do (and not do, especially in terms of some leisurely rugby union “traditions” ) at school than how they’re being brought there. In any case, the results come out well, as in the below highlights from the 2007 grand final:

Not so fast. The ball can travel forward without being illegally passed. Why? The rugby union laws define “throw forward” thusly:

A throw forward occurs when a player throws or passes the ball
forward. ‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball line.

The fine distiction here is that the player must propel the ball forward to throw it forward. If it is passed backward or sideward and travels forward in space, that’s fine. How does a backward or sideward throw travel forward? Momentum. Have you ever been standing on a street at night and watched someone toss a cigarette out the window? You will note that:

1) the person doing so is a tosser in more ways than one, and
2) the cigarette will fly forward and continue to roll forward on the ground, even if it was thrown backward a bit by the driver, because it has momentum from traveling in a car moving forward very quickly.

Although your average rugby player can’t keep up with a car on a street and a cigarette is not much like a rugby football, the principle is the same. The football will continue to carry the momentum of the forward-running player, so it may drift forward in space even if thrown sideward.

If that analogy is for the birds, just watch this old video from the Australian Rugby Union and try to complain a little bit less about though not-so-forward throws (though beware that not every referee is familiar with the concept–feel free to recommend this site!):

Given that some American rugby union players come from an American football background, no small number of Americans play their first rugby union match in Amerian football boots. as with boots for rugby union, of these boots have detachable studs, while others have molded studs. Unlike rugby union boots, American football boots typically have a single stud on the toe.

Here is where the confusion comes in. The single toe stud has been banned in rugby union since 1981, so American football boots with detachable toe studs are not allowed. Some have also incorrectly interpreted this ban as a ban on molded American football boots with toe studs.

This is not so. Although Law 4.4(i) states, “A player must not wear a single stud at the toe of the boot,” Law 4.3 (b) states, “Moulded rubber multi-studded soles are acceptable provided they have no sharp edges or ridges.” In a clarification a couple of years ago, Peter Watson of the USARFU Laws Committee confirmed that the toe stud ban was only pertinent to boots with removable studs. Specifically, the clarification stated:

…I have heard reports of referees requiring that players cut a toe stud off molded rubber soles. This is not a requirement in Law. In fact, I have seen the results of this and they can be actually dangerous after a sloppy trim job, with sharp edges created when cutting off the stud…The prohibition on single studs is meant for boots with replaceable studs. Soccer style cleats with molded bottoms are covered in Law 4.3 (b), as are many boots intended for other sports such as football…In a similar vein, the boot style known as “blades” were accepted provisionally in 2001. That has not changed…

In other words, stop telling people to hack off that molded toe stud with a pocketknife! While football boots with removable studs must have the toe stud removed, no modification is necessary for molded boots. Let’s get rid of this myth by spreading the true story on molded American football boots in rugby union.