As we enter the 21st century, the importance and value of regular physical activity has been recognized as never before. Childhood is the time to begin the development of active and healthy lifestyles.  Present programs need to prepare children with basic movement skills that can be used in any activity.  Systematic and properly taught physical education can help achieve the attainment of personal physical fitness, the development and understanding of movement competence, and contributions toward the total growth of each child.  The purpose of this web-based unit plan is to introduce teachers to the basic principles involved in rugby; these include skills and tactics that are  developmentally and instructionally appropriate for children in a physical education program.

          Rugby is a game that was developed in Western Europe, and has expanded across the world rapidly over the past few years. Rugby falls into the game category of territory/invasion, this is because the games main objective is to invade the territory of your opponent in an attempt to score passed an open end line. The main body movements involved in the game are: running, stopping, cutting, evading, tackling and recovering. These primary movements are needed to be developed in order to progress through various skills that the game offers; in addition these body movements will also aid learning game tactics. The main pieces of equipment used in the game are a rugby ball, a protective head cap, and in some instances a protective shoulder pads. The game of rugby is played with 15 players, yet there is usually 22 players on a team, as injuries are common and occur regularly. Rugby is a very physically demanding game, yet has a number of important rules that keeps the game running smoothly and the players and environment safe. Rugby’s most pronounced rules is that the ball must travel backward, this is what makes rugby unlike any other territory/invasion game.  The game of rugby is constantly increasing in population and today the Rugby World Cup is the third largest sporting event in the world (RugbyCanada.com 2007)