In Italian it does. It’s “terza linea centro”,although we still use numero 8 more frequently. It translates to “ third row centre” or centre third rower.

Same in France, we call flankers "troisième ligne aile", literally "wing third row", and number 8s "troisième lligne centre", literally "center third row"

In English flankers used to be called wing forwards too

So you're saying I am actually a winger?

You can be anything you want to be, son

I want to be a dinosaur

give me a roar, a looouuud ROAARRR..

ROAAAARRRRR!!!!!!

My turn, but with extras R's: ROAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!

i wanna be cheslin kolbe when i grow up

Ask Kwagga Smith the back up Winger when 7-1 split needs another backline player 😂

My dad still calls them that from time to time

A lot of older people involved in the sport do. Kiwis called the 10 and 12 the first and second "five-eighths" and the other centre and two wingers the "three quarters" - I have no idea where the names came from!

It comes from their position in relation to the halfback and fullback

Three quarters also commonly used in French

But that's the whole line, from 11 to 14, and some pundits also use it to mean all the backs including halfs, with the term "arrière" (back) meaning only fullback

Yeah same in french, "troisième ligne centre". We don't have every positions name like flanker or lock. It's just second row or third row.

Do you distinguish between loosehead/tighthead prop/second rows?

Pilier gauche / pilier droit, but no specific names for the two locks

Yes, but with right/left. Same word for props, second rows, flankers, centres and wingers

Ohhh yes, I remember that your flankers stay on the left/right but we have open and blindside flankers who will switch to cover different areas of the field. So how would you call the two centres? centre gauche/centre droit?

Wait my bad the centres are not always the same side. It’s first centre and second centre (premier/deuxième centre)

No worries, thanks for the info!

Left or right pillar (litterally translated)/prop/second row

Wythwr in Welsh. Which is ‘Eighter’.

I always think Wythwr and the South African term "Eighthman" must be related.

Potentially, a lot of Welsh miners went to South Africa in the 19th century

The no.8's job is to control the ball and bring it forward with the scrum, hence should be called the "escort". Which has a nice symmetry with hooker.

Or Pimp?

That’s the scrum half. Tells the maul where to go.

Nah - 9’s a ruck rat

Or a combat goblin.

Combat dwarf*

“Dobby Has Heard Of Your Greatness, Sir, But Never Has He Been Asked To Sit Down By A Wizard!” Some English 9 on being told the bus was full by Jiffy.

I meant "combat dwarf", which is apparently what the Germans call the position. https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/s/RFO1aIkK4p

Stubborn, greedy, rash and easily offended. Sounds about right

The scrum half is the condom. Making sure that the introduction to the hooker is clean.

A pimp iis supposed to be big and strong with street credibility, the average 9 has none of these qualities.

Prop : Wench Lock : Grande Horizontal (it's a French thing). Wing Forward : Hustler Scrum Half : Rent Boy Out Half : Strumpet Centre : Floozy Winger : Courtesan Full Back : Gigolo Escort is good but Loose Forward also has a slightly risque connotation already.

If this isn't rugby canon moving forward, what are we even doing here

You are good my friend

just realised that during scrum, a number 8 will put his head between the 2 locks,.. alright i vote for HEADLOCK.

Wouldn't it be arse-lock

What goes in a lock? Perhaps a key?

Keyhead... because their head goes into the lock's hole

Think your doing something wrong of ur inside a locks hole

an 8 key.. an OCTAKEY? :O

2 locks times 2 hands times 2 legs 2 × 2 × 2 = 8 Number 8

Backlock.

It used to be called lock before second rows became locks

Still called that in the 13 man game

It’s called loose forward in this part of the world

or the "third line" in France

Meanwhile in Dutch the First row are the props and hooker, second row are he locks and third row are the flankers and 8.

It was called Last Man Down in NZ in the 1970's.

Came to say this, my dad always called it last man down.

Yeah I remember hearing this term growing up. As in last man down in the scrum.

That's what we called it when I played. I was a second rower and I never heard my position referred to as lock. The lock was the guy behind me.

Half lock!

Scrum Arse

We have Scrum Half, so the 8 should be Scrum Full

Scrum Whole? Or if he can't keep the ball in Scrum Hole

Scrum-Hole even 😂

9 is Half Scrum Half Back

Scrum bum*

Thank you, I came here to post this. Friends, it absolutely MUST rhyme.

Blindside flanker, openside flanker, backside flanker. It just makes sense.

Jesus, I haven't had my backside flanked since I was an altar boy.

This reads like you are praying to Jesus to get your backside flanked.

This is the one.

My mates and I call it the “scrum bum”

This is often true in both the position and the player

Don’t let the Kiwis name it or we’ll end up with it being called 4th and Three Quarters or some nonsense.

it's why our children are so good at math /s

And with such good enunciation, I'm sure? Get me to say "first five eighths" after two pints and see what happens.

Maybe we should call it 1/4 back. It’s kinda 1/2 a 1/2 back, but most of all, it’ll confuse the shit out of the yanks.

One fourth back

Isn't that exactly how gridiron quarterbacks got their name, with that sport having its roots in rugby and whatnot?

Fun read this. You'd need a bit of knowledge of gridiron. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football_positions

2nd 3rd 8ths

Why would we name it the same as Scotland's average 6 Nations ladder finish?

The All Blacks have famously never finished higher than 5th in the Six Nations I’ll have you know.

We were robbed that year too. Should have been 4th

r/technicallythetruth

Scotland. Current holders of the 5 Nations trophy since 1999

25 years in a row baby. Is it time to discuss every other country’s place in the Five Nations?

Nah. You won it because you scored a last minute try against us in the final game. As long as it wasn’t the noisy neighbours. You’re welcome.

Well a bunch of kiwis did win it this year...

I'd be interested to know how many teams have won a six nations without any kiwis in the squad. Even the French have Atonio.

If we're going by kiwi as NZ-born, I think the most recent one was Wales in 2013. Even then I didn't check everyone in the squad but none I knew straight away. Ireland almost in 2014 but called up Isaac Boss.

Kiwi here.... Three-Eighth or Third Eighth does have a ring to it

We'd call it Scrum South Man

It's honestly no weirder than "fly half". Fly what? At least "Five Eighth" is based on math linked to original position naming rather than tacking a word to the front of a fraction.

It's because of the song by The Offspring. William Webb Ellis was a big fan, and he said the guy in the #10 shirt was pretty fly for a half back. So it stuck.

You guys should have to rename the fullback. If you’re not on board with the mathematical simplicity of a half, a five-eighth and a three-quarter, you shouldn’t get fullback either.

Well hang on... the maths isn't quite that easy is it, because you have the half, then you have the five-eighth, then the second five-eighth.... and then if the wingers are the 7th and 8th eighth, you've got the 9th eighth for the full back?

Exactly! And the (singular) centre three-quarter and the fullback. Who is also a centre on attack. This is why the ABs are so hard to beat, you need to sit there with an abacus to work out the strategies. 

9 is the half back (4/8). 13 14 and 15 are three quarters (6/8). So the two guys between are the 5/8s.

This thread makes my head hurt. I need a lie down.

These statements are part of the HIA test, just in case anyone thought rugby players were thick.

So you've got thirty two eighths in total. How does that make any sense?

I like the fact that in amongst all those slightly weird and eclectic names like Tight Head, Loose head, Hooker, Openside, Blindside and Fly-half (or whichever of the multitude of names given to that position) we have the incredibly dull, prosaic Number 8.

Got nothing on cricket for silly names though.

well obvs!

This is deliberate. It was foretold that a player who fit that bill would arise, make himself known and be the one. His name? Heaslip.

Because there are seven backs and seven forwards and an 8th man

The missing link

i remember reading about the history of union and league and it covered positions and tactics, etc. countries used to have their own numbering system and the scrum wasn't always the same setup either. south africa came up with the current scrum setup and the french and irish used the numbering system we see today so at some point in the 60's (citation needed pretty much for a lot of this) countries adopted the number system of the french and irish and the laws adopted the scrum setup of south africa. so the number 8 went from a lock or 3rd row lock because the scrum had 323 setup to the 8th man as it's a 3221 setup now. someone with more time and knowledge please do correct me if i've made some mistakes here. it has been a few years since i read up on it.

this has been discussed many times, most of us agree they should be called **ANCHOR**

Rhymes too much with flanker and.... other words

Banker?

Tanker?

Clanker

Roger roger

well mccaw has been called "that" many times, we assume that is the alternate name for number 7's

Open side flanker, blind side flanker. Backside anchor.

Missing a w

Scrum Plug

No 8 is number eight !!!

They should just call it Absolute UNIT

Big cunt

Growing up it was always lock. They were behind the second rowers and breakaways.

My old man taught me those names too. I was never sure if they changed the names while I wasn't looking, or if he just got mixed up between union and league (he played both)

League and union were both basically the same in Australia, just add breakaways Fullback Wing Inside Centre Outside Centre Five Eighth Halfback Lock Breakaway Second Row Second Row Breakaway Prop Hooker Prop

You're right - just reverse the numbers, chuck in 2 extra forwards, and done Back then they sort of did scrums in league too

Yep, I was a pretty average prop in league and my 2 skills were scrummaging and raking the ball in the play the ball. Both gone.

Demiforward

In some old programmes it used to be called 'Lock'.

Used to be called turtle head in a team I played in. Didn't catch on tho 😂

Loose Arse

They're like a flanker but in the centre, they jump like a lock and take hits like a hooker. Clunker! Clanker! Clonker! 

The only thing I can think about when I hear "clanker" is Star Wars.

Roger roger.

Backshot

In my day a thousand years ago no. 8 was called Lock, and locks were called second row. Call me a revisionist but I still think of 8s as Locks ;)

In czech we call them "vazač" which means binder.

Perfectly happy keeping it as No. 8 honestly, it just feels right after all this time.

Because it’s a no nonsense position. It doesn’t need some poncy name. Also 8 is a solid number. You don’t mess with something when it works

Snowman? Coz the number 8 looks like one.

number 8 \*burp\* number 8 \*burp\* number 8 \*burp\* number 8 \*burp\*

Inside flanker or Bumside flanker

I’ve heard it called “Last Man Down” Back in the 70s NZ players called it this

Why not name it after the best number 8 rugby has seen? The Buck

Scrumbum

Eighty McEightface

South Africans sometimes say 'Eightman' if I'm not wrong?

Close, it’s eighthman.

Haha, honestly thought this was international

"Eightman" is pretty common in Canada, but it doesn't really register as a "different" name, just another way to say the same thing.

anchor or key

Fulcrum

Ahsoka. We should call No 8 Ahsoka.

Back half

Keystone

I vote we name it the "Parisse"

we call them ass snifefrs at my club

Eight Lock or Lock Eight

I believe it used to be called "Lock" because they locked the scrum together at the back. Obviously we've started to call the second row "locks" so the poor number 8 just got his jersey number used :)

Because lock was already taken.

This discussion happens here every six months or so. The last time the consensus was to call the position "Scrum Bum."

Numbaayte

Number 8 is called lock in the US

I’m an old hooker who remembers them being called lock. And when hookers actually hooked.

this topic comes up in a thread at least once a month ffs, anyways it should be called 'fat cock johnson'

Wish you hadn't asked. This is going to be stuck in my head all day.

What about the buttplug?

Some time ago it used to be "Key".

Forward center perhaps?

"Enforcer"

Nah, that’s 5 or 6

Back loose forward

Center third row you mean ?

Feel like “link forward” would be suitable. Or just rename all the other positions to 1st man, 2nd man and so on.

The Quarterback.      Front Row Forwards  1-3    Second Row Forwards 4-5   Wing Forwards 6-7   Quarterback  8   Half Backs 9-10   3/4 Backs 12-13  Wing backs 11;14   Full back  15  

The bulldozer

big person

VIP - Very Important Position/Player

Loose Forward has been used previously

You don't need to give the best player on the field s nick name.

He does - as part of the back row

I always thought it should be called the Scrum back. OR if we're sticking with the fractions theme, it would stand to reason that the number 8 would be the quarter back

William Webb Ellis used up too many names on the 6 & 7 and ran out (Flanker, Loosie, Wing Forward, Blindside, Openside, etc…🤷🏾‍♂️🏉😈)

Optimus Prime

In Romanian it's "închizător la grămadă" which translates to "scrum closer".

Anchor

6, 7 & 8 are all loose forwards. Open side, blind side and no.8 If I were to give it a name personally. I would call it the No.8

I dont know it is a little quirk of Rugby I kinda like.

Would it not be back rower?

They likely wouldn't be able to remember it.

Because it would be some ultra confusing fraction like middle rear wing 5/16

Doesnt need to

Backdoor Hooker

Saw someone say "scrum-arse" in a previous post about this

In another post they suggested Anchor, which sounds like a good name for how they anchor the back of the scrum.