This Thursday sees the annual Brum Twestival take place at Poppy Red in the city centre. Each year the Twestival aims to raise lots of money for a different charity. This year the proceeds of the event will go towards Concern Worldwide, who raise money to help those in poverty, particularly children, get a decent education.

As this year’s theme is education, the Brum Twestival team have come up with an idea called Brumabilities.

These are short online guides on pretty much anything, in the aim of collecting up knowledge to share with everyone, whether its how to make pancakes to my contribution which is an amusing (well I hope you find it funny) guide to some of the jargon that you might hear at a rugby match…

Backs: They wear the numbers from 9 to 15 on the back of their shirts. They’re the ones who run fast, kick a fair bit and turn out to be the best commentators because nobody else can get a word in edge ways. They’re also the ones most likely to have a celebrity girlfriend. See Gavin Henson.

Forwards: They wear 1 to 8 on their shirts. They go in the scrums (see later), line outs (see later) and do all the hard work while the backs take all the credit. They can do more than just talk, they write too, or if they’re freakishly tall they have credits in the Harry Potter movies for being Hagrid’s body double if you’re the 6ft 10in tall Martin Bayfield.

Scrum: When the forwards get together in some weird 3-2-3 formation on either side, and then merge and push against each other to try and get the ball that one of the backs puts in for fun. This is how cauliflower ears are formed. You don’t want them, they’re ick.

Photo taken at England v Barbarians 2009 by Rachel Simmonite

Line Out: Like a throw-in in football only the forwards (I told you they do all the work) lift each other up and try to catch it. This is where being freakishly tall helps. Having strong team mates helps as well.

Ruck: When a player is tackled they go on the ground. The players (usually the forwards) then compete for the ball by going over that player to protect it from the opposition. This is a ruck. You don’t want to be stuck at the bottom of one of these, it hurts.

Maul: This is when players compete for the ball when the ball isn’t on the ground. Like when one of the freakishly tall ones catches the ball from the line out, they can keep it and then their team mates and opposition push against each other once more like a scrum but less organized. Can happen pretty much anywhere on the pitch.

Try: This is worth 5 points. It happens when the ball is grounded on or over the try line, but the player must be in control of the ball for it to count. This is then followed by the Conversion, which is worth 2 points and is a kick at goal from in line with where the try was scored, this is usually done by one of the backs.

Sin-bin: Not actually a bin, but it should be. You go to this if you’ve been particularly naughty and the ref’s spotted it – remember that if the ref doesn’t spot it then it’s legal.

Drop Goal: What Jonny Wilkinson scored to win the Rugby World Cup.

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