What is the history of union try points?

Answer 1

Historically, no points at all were awarded for a try, the reward being to "try" to score a goal (to kick the ball over the cross bar and between the posts). Modern points scoring was introduced in the late 1880s, and was uniformly accepted by the Home Nations for the 1890/91 season.[

The balance in value between tries and conversions has changed greatly over the years. Until 1891, a try scored one point, a conversion two. For the next two years tries scored two points and conversion three, until in 1893 the modern pattern of tries scoring more was begun with three points awarded for a try, two for a kick. The number of points from a try increased to four in 1971 and five in 1992.

Penalties have been worth three points since 1891 (they previously had been worth two points). The value of the drop goal was four points between 1891 and 1948, three points at all other times.

The goal from mark was made invalid in 1977, having been worth three points, except between 1891 and 1905 when it was worth four.

The defence was originally allowed to attempt to charge down a conversion kick from the moment the ball was placed on the ground, generally making it impossible for the kicker to place the ball himself and make any kind of a run-up. As a result, teams had a designated placer, typically the scrum-half, who would time the placement to coincide with the kicker's run-up. In 1958, the law governing conversions changed to today's version, which allows the kicker to place the ball and prohibits the defence from advancing toward the kicker until he begins his run-up.

Date

Try

Conversion

Penalty

Dropped-goal

Goal from mark

1890-1891

1 point

2 points

3 points

3 points

-

1891-1894

2 points

3 points

3 points

4 points

4 points

1894-1904

3 points

2 points

3 points

4 points

4 points

1905-1947

3 points

2 points

3 points

4 points

3 points

1948-1970

3 points

2 points

3 points

3 points

3 points

1971-1977

4 points

2 points

3 points

3 points

3 points

1977-1991

4 points

2 points

3 points

3 points

-

1992-present

5 points

2 points

3 points

3 points