New to Rugby

[JDM]

Welcome to the forum Dave. I got interested in Rugby Union over 21 years ago. The way I learned was by watching matches and highlights on YouTube. You'll find instructional videos there also like the one I linked below. United Rugby Championship, Premiership Rugby and Super Rugby Pacific are my favorites, but I check out all the pro leagues. As far as the USA goes, Major League Rugby just lost another team (Utah) and is down to an all time low of 6 teams from 13 at their peak. Things aren't looking good for MLR. World Rugby is another good channel to check out on YouTube. They stream men's and women's rugby from all around the world. Professional rugby in the USA is struggling, but the College game keeps growing and they have national tournaments. A lot of it's on YouTube.

Have to agree. I'm not sure Rugby is really viable in the U.S. Between all the other sports options, a general decline in non-NFL sports viewership, and an increase in the younger generations entertaining themselves with Netflix, Youtube, and video games, not sure the climate will ever be right for a U.S. league. Not to mention there's almost no grassroots development except for high income areas in the northeast/midwest it seems to me.

 

[The Seeker]

oldmandave: I recommend you watch this next month. The college championship tournaments are always interesting!

National Collegiate Rugby

www.ncr.rugby

 

[The Seeker]

oldmandave: Here's another collegiate rugby competition in the USA. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, pro rugby is struggling in America but the college game keeps growing!

Home - CRAA Rugby

The College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) is comprised of the premier divisions within Men’s and Women’s Collegiate rugby.

craa.rugby

 

[oldmandave]

Welcome,

I'm an American too with absolutely no connection to the game but have been studying/watching it over the last 5-10 years or so. If you got any question, I'll try to answer the best I can and hopefully can relate to some U.S. sports - football (not soccer) in particular.

Just a couple of things that I've noticed that seem generally different from U.S. sports and football in particular that you might notice or find weird:

1) The refs: The refs seem to play a more significant part in the game and are actively telling players what to do mid-game. The refs seem generally more well-known because how they decide to call matches and what their tolerances are for certain things (esp. at the breakdown) can have a very material effect on outcomes. Also, the enforcement of certain rules seems to be a bit more arbitrary than you find in the NFL IMO. There's an argument to be made that you could call holding, for instance, on almost every NFL snap but often it's very subjective and often immaterial to the outcome of the play. At the breakdown (i.e. after a player is tackled and a ruck is formed) there seems to be a consistent violation of the laws governing the breakdown, the ruck, and poaching the ball. From my understanding, there's a balance being had between enforcing the rules and maintaining the flow of the game, so the refs have to contend with this as well. Also, if you look at scrum feeds, they seem to be crooked quite a bit. Got to admit, seems to be harder than hell being a Rugby Ref.

2) The laws/rules while generally steady, seem to be more in flux compared to the NFL. The recent NFL rule changes with the kickoff, extra point we Big precisely because changes of that magnitude are not common. In my opinion, there seems to be more rule changes in rugby that aren't merely clarifications and tweaks. From my understanding Rugby didn't really become professionalize until the 1990's so with that in mind I think a lot of the change has to do with a balancing act between creating an entertaining product, spirit of the game, and long-standing rules. Player safety as well seems to be a big one.

I'll admit this last year or so I haven't been able to watch as much so maybe some of this has changed through points of emphasis and other laws, but I just wanted to provide a viewpoint coming from a background similar to yours. It's a neat game but it definitely is a bit of a "culture shock" sometimes when looking at it through the lens of a U.S. sports viewer.

I may take you up on the offer once i understand a little more about the game.
Thanks