Tambo rugby (Japanese 田んぼラグビー ''tambo ragubii'', from 田んぼ ''tambo'' 'rice field') is a Japanese form of

tag rugby Tag-rugby belt Tag rugby, or flag rugby, is a non-contact team game in which each player wears a belt that has two velcro tags attached to it, or shorts with velcro patches. The mode of play is based on rugby league with many similarities to to ...

played in flooded (and muddy)

rice field Wendel D. Ley Track and Holloway Field is a stadium in Houston, Texas. It is primarily used for track and field and soccer for the Rice University Owls. It is bounded by Main Street (southeast), University Boulevard (southwest), Reckling Pa ...

s. It is played by men and women, adults and children together. Smaller, lighter players have some advantages, as larger, heavier players tend to sink in the mud. A simple

try Try or TRY may refer to: Music Albums * ''Try!'', an album by the John Mayer Trio * ''Try'' (Bebo Norman album) (2014) Songs * "Try" (Blue Rodeo song) (1987) * "Try" (Colbie Caillat song) (2014) * "Try" (Nelly Furtado song) (2004) * " Try (Ju ...

is worth one point, a diving try is worth two. The playing season is May to August, between rice-harvest and planting. The game was invented by Nobuyuki Nagate in

Fukuchiyama 250px, Fukuchiyama Castle 250px, Fukuchiyama city center is a city in northern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 76,037 in 36412 households and a population density of 140 persons per km². The total area of ...

, near the Inland Sea northwest of Kyoto, in 2015, after a typhoon had flooded local rice farms, and many of the first players were farm-women. From Fukuchiyama it spread to neighboring communities, and within a few years Japan's local and national rugby teams joined in, winning about half of their matches. In 2019, 15 events were held nationwide.

References

External links

Rice-field rugby in Japan!
Video on tambo rugby from the website of the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

{{Team Sport, state=collapsed Rugby football Team sports Japanese games