Wikipedia:Peer review/Rugby union

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[edit] Rugby union

Hi there, this article was worked on as a COTF a while ago, so I just want to get ideas of where it should be going. Any comments would be very helpful. Some concerns are;

• If someone were to read it, not knowing much about the sport, would it make sense?
• The tournaments section - what should happen here?
• The nations section?..?
• Very important: What specific things need a reference in this article?
• Are the headings/layout right?
• I suspect that some things trail off rugby union and more into general sport, such as referees, cheerleaders/support, jerseys (home/away)...that kind of stuff...What do you think
• Are there any sections that would benefit from being represented by an image?
• Should there be a governing body(s) heading?

... Any comments would be very appreciated. Thank-you. Cvene64 10:53, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Overall, a good article with no major flaws. Can't really help with the first point as I have some knowledge of the sport, but as for the others:

• Tournaments - I suspect that this section has been cut down due to concerns over article size. The Six Nations seems to dominate the section, with very little about the Rugby World Cup. At present it is unclear who contests the Rugby World Cup. A reader might think it is a competition similar to the World Series. Something similar to the lead from the Rugby World Cup article could be beneficial. For the Six Nations, either cut out the trivia or convert it to prose.
• Nations - Again, consider converting this into prose instead of a list format. Giving the team nicknames is probably unnecessary for an article providing an overview of the sport as a whole.
• References - lots of things need references. Lack of references is probably the biggest weakness of this article. A look at some of the more recent sports FAs may give some idea as to what sort of thing to reference. The rules of the game shouldn't need much referencing as they are all included in one place (the one existing reference), but sections such as the History section will need several. The use of the new(ish) m:Cite style of referencing is recommended.
• The layout seems fine, though the structure "Game laws and methods" section could be simplified as it currently goes to a fourth level of subheading. Cricket gives a good example of how to structure such a section.
• Referees/umpires/judges have varying roles in different sports, so no problem there. Mentioning cheerleaders is unnecessary, as is mentioning that the coin toss may be performed by a dignitary. No need for that level of detail about jerseys, but expanding on protective equipment would be useful as it is one of the major differences from American football.
• Ideally, an image of a player attempting a conversion or attempting to score from a penalty would be good, but I know that copyright-free sports pictures are hard to come by.
• Governing body - Depends on whether it would duplicate the material from the History and Nations sections or not. If it would, then the information would be better placed in those sections.
• One other thing I noticed - the lead says Rugby union was founded in 1823, presumably referring to the Webb Ellis story, but this is contradicted in the History section.

Hope this helps. Oldelpaso 18:16, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks very much, your comments were exactly what I was looking for. I will get onto it soon. Thanks again.Cvene64 04:35, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

A few of the points I had when the article was up for FA are still not answered in the article. Those points are:

• You should include something about strategy in the article. If you get 5 points for a try and only 3 for a penalty or drop goal, why do teams ever kick penalty or drop goals? And why do they kick the ball out of bounds so much?
• Is the 22-meter drop-out a drop kick? And who kicks the 22-meter drop out: the team that grounded the ball in the in-goal area or the team that kicked it there?
• Shouldn't the "sin bin" be mentioned?
• Do rugby teams have set plays in which they plan who's going to pass the ball to whom and where, like in American football, or is it all spontaneous? (This was answered on the talk page but not put in the article).

In addition, I think you need to make it clearer what a rugby match actually looks like. You have good information on rucks, mauls, scrums, restart kicks, etc., but you don't make clear that most or much of rugby consists of running down the field with the ball and tossing it backwards to your teammates. You should high up in the article better discuss how the ball is advanced down the field. -- Mwalcoff 02:50, 7 May 2006 (UTC)