What’s Japanese for ‘ruck’? Turning rugby’s technical terms into an international language
- Written by Averil Coxhead, Professor in Applied Linguistics and TESOL, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

The winter rugby season is well under way, with fields and sidelines ringing to the unique language of the game. Learning this vocabulary comes through playing and talking about the game, no matter if the players are in Taranaki, Twickenham, Tonga or Tokyo.
If you know the terms – back, penalty, intercept, front row, scrum, clean...