Why it is easier to make up rugby characters than football characters

I'm writing a trilogy of rugby union stories for children.

There are five main characters who play in the team, giving me the usual challenge of defining a group of children as different from each other and three-dimensional.

When I wrote the Football Academy series I had to make up eleven believable characters for an under-eleven football team. It was not easy. I struggled to not make them all seem two-dimensional types. I solved that problem - after a lot of struggling - by basing all the players on people I knew. That worked.

With my rugby series I have found it easier. It's to do with the nature of the game of rugby. Each of my five players needs a position on the rugby field. And in rugby the positions players play in are much more defined than in football. (In my opinion.)

There are specific roles that certain physical attributes lend themselves to in rugby. Also, certain positions demand psychological strengths as opposed to others. So, while I was choosing what my characters would be like, I started with the position they played in.

One would be a centre. Strong. Fast. Creative. So he can get through a defence.

Another would be a scrum half. Alert. Tactically aware. Always thinking.

A third would be a fly half. Focussed. Obsessive. Good at communicating.

Once I knew their positions, I knew what they looked like. And I had some ideas about what they might be like as players. Their strengths. Their weakness. It helped a lot. It worked.

I think.