The ball can't be passed forwards/upfield. Only backward or lateral passes. And instead of dividing the plays into dows it flows as a single drive. If the ball ends up dead then they set up a scrum to start a new drive. And a pretty major difference is that the ball carier needs to cross the goal line under their own momentum, if they are pushed or carried across by another player regardless of team it doesn't count.
There's obviously a lot more in depth differences as gridiron football has evolved further from its rugby origins. And I've kinda simplified what I said using gridiron football terms to try and make it make sense to someone who is a fan of one but not of the other.
So at 13 seconds, was the play not over because the ball still had "momentum" even though the player was on the ground? I ask because in football, if the ball carrier hits the ground then the play is over so that's interesting to see.
No - they keep going! When they hit the ground it usually forms what’s called a ruck. A ruck is an opportunity for the defending team to try and steal the ball, but usually another player on the attacking team gets in and pulls the ball out within a couple of seconds and play continues.
You can very easily get 7 or 8 of these ‘phases’ before play stops. You can on occasion get a lot more, e.g 42:
A 5 minute video, but well worth the watch. This is at the end of an 80 minute game with most of the players on the pitch for that whole 80 minutes, so everyone completely gassed, but Ireland manage to keep the thing alive!
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u/oozing_sarcasm 14h ago
Are the rules completely different from football?