They should be very active fellows, good dodgers and fast runners.

They never join in the very rough work, but they always follow on the outskirts of the forwards, and if the ball is forced past it is their duty to pick it up and make away with it like lightning.

If they are very fast they may succeed in carrying it a long way before they are caught--'tackled,' as we call it.

It is their duty also to keep their eye on the quarter-backs of the enemy, and to tackle them if they get away.

Behind them again are the two half-backs--or 'three-quarters,' as they call them in England.