The headline here is that, just like rugby league, a typical rugby union game last for 80 minutes. Those minutes are divided into two 40-minute halves. Though that makes it shorter than football’s two 45-minutes halves, a rugby game can last a whole lot longer in reality.
Factors such as injuries, referee reviews, penalties and substitutions can affect how long the game actually is in real time.
Rugby Game Times
Here’s how a rugby union game is broken down in terms of time:
- Standard Game Duration: 80 minutes
- Time Split: 2 x 40-minutes halves
- Half-Time Duration: 10-15 minutes between halves of play
- Clock Stoppages: The game is stopped during certain events, such as subs, injuries, TMO checks, etc.
- End of the Match: When 80 minutes is up, the game is over as soon as the ball next goes out of play
Clock Stops
The fact that the clock is stopped in rugby is a great help. There’s no ambiguity; once the actual match clock reaches 80 minutes the game is over when the ball goes out.
This is in stark contrast to football. In that game, we have to rely on the referee adding ‘stoppage time’ accurately. Even then, a ‘minimum’ amount is announced to the crowd and yet we so often play on and on, leading to many teams feeling hard done to when a goal is scored after 98 minutes of a supposed 96-minute game.
Stopping the clock, as with rugby, basketball and other sports, would transform football.
What Affects the Total Game Duration?
The 80-minute rugby union game length is nowhere near how long a match actually takes. Typically, when including all stoppages and the half-time break, a rugby match will take anywhere from 100 to 120 minutes to complete.
Rugby is very flexible in this sense. It is also a sport in which there are lots of reasons to stop the clock. These are some of the main reasons the match clock is stopped within a rugby union game:
- Injuries: Much like in football, if a player is down injured and needs treatment the referee may stop the game and the clock.
- Substitutions: A number of replacements are allowed in rugby, the clock stopping to allow these to take place before the game resumes.
- TMO Checks: TMO, or Television Match Official checks, often take place and are required to interrupt play until they are solved. This is in contrast to football, in which many VAR checks take place while the game continues.
- Lineouts and Scrum Resets: Set pieces in rugby are very choreographed and take time. These can really add to the overall time taken in the game. When any formation becomes unstable or leads to a penalty, more time is added to the match.
- Conversions and Penalties: When one team has a penalty kick, or indeed a conversion following a try, the kicker may take quite some time to set himself up. That time is not included within the regular game time and so adds plenty to the overall match duration.
The Rarity That Is Extra-Time
One last thing that can affect the total match duration, not the initial 80 minutes, is extra-time although this is very rare in rugby.
In certain rugby tournaments, especially the knockout stages or finals of major competitions, such as the World Cup, the scores may be tied at 80 minutes leading to the need for extra-time. Extra-time length in itself can vary from tournament to tournament. The organising body can determine this.
A Famous Extra-Time Example
Perhaps the most famous example of an international rugby match going to extra-time is the 2003 World Cup Final. In that, England won with the last action of extra-time to steal the World Cup from their hosts’ grasp.
Naturally, in such a game there was a lot of build-up. Two 40-minute halves featuring plenty of stoppages came and went, along with another 20 minutes of extra-time at Stadium Australia led to a pretty long night.
How Rugby Compares to Other Sports in Match Duration
Not taking those stoppages into contention, rugby union’s 80-minute duration offers a pretty good fan experience. Here’s how it compares to other team sports:
| Sport | Overall Playing Time | Details |
|---|---|---|
| NFL American Football | Up to 3½ hours | 60-minite games, 4 x 15-minute quarters, lots of stoppages |
| MLB Baseball | Up to 3 hours | 9 innings, no real time limit |
| T20 Cricket | Up to 3 hours | 2 innings of 20 overs each, no exact time limit |
| NBA Basketball | Up to 2½ hours | 48-minute games, 4 x 12-minute quarters, includes stoppages and timeouts |
| NHL Ice Hockey | Up to 2½ hours | 60-minute games, 3 x 20-minute periods with stoppages including TV ad breaks |
| Rugby Union/League | Up to 2 hours | 80-minute games, 2 x 40-minute halves |
| Football | Up to 2 hours | 90-minute games, 2 x 45-minute halves |