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What if America started caring about Rugby?

Well they are the sleeping Giants of world rugby!!

if they get the proper resources and start building from schoolboy rugby upwards, they could become a real World Heavyweight in World Rugby.

That being said, they should stop making rugby movies, theyr'e embarrassing... anyone seen the movie Forever Strong?? i bet a couple of kiwis will be very angry after watching that movie!
 
heineken said:
Well they are the sleeping Giants of world rugby!!

if they get the proper resources and start building from schoolboy rugby upwards, they could become a real World Heavyweight in World Rugby.

That being said, they should stop making rugby movies, theyr'e embarrassing... anyone seen the movie Forever Strong?? i bet a couple of kiwis will be very angry after watching that movie!
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It wasn't the best comedy, but it had it's moments.
 
calculon said:
But everyone would hate you if you were really good, because most Americans wouldn't care. It would be: "The Cowboys were beaten by the Jets. In other news America won some world cup in some game called rugby that nobody's every heard of."
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If the US were to ever win the Rugby World Cup, Rugby would definitely be a popular sport in the US. There is no way they will ever be world champions without it being a major sport in their country. The top end level of rugby both physically and skill wise ranks with any sport in the world.

It will take a long time for the US to catch up. If they just chuck all the physical talent that cant quite make it professionally in the NBA or NFL they will stay ranked 15 or whatever number they are. It will take a lot of money and coaching and talent for them to ever compete at the highest level. This means that some of their best athletes are going to have to aspire to play rugby.
 
the first time i watched USA in the 2003 RWC, I was stunned "daaayamn these boyz know how to play!"..sleeping giants for sure! give em 2 more years then the world will see USA rugby.
 
They just need to start "major league" rugby and they're set
 
Rugby needn't be a 'top' sport for the US to become competitive IMO.

NZ has a population of 4 mil and they top the rankings. Rugby is their top sport.
Aus has a population of 22 mil and they are 2nd. Rugby isn't near as popular as other sports but does have a core following.
USA has a population of 300+ mil. So if you look at the examples above you needn't have a big population or the sport being the top sport for a country to do well. What those two nations do have however that USA lack is a rich tradition in rugby and structures that ensure that their players play top opposition on a regular basis.

So they need to get guys with talent to play top opposition as a base requirement IMO.

First off for the sake of sustainability and consistency you need the sport played at school and either club/tertiary education level. If the USA (or merely a part of it) can develop a core of followers (usually ex-players who played at school level which makes school exposure doubly important), get some sort of pro league up and running with enough $ to keep top US players playing together then I'm sure they'll get competitive real quick. They can do what the Aussies do and look to sign guys 'cross code' as well. Once their club system is going they should look to play other teams/nations of a high standard; 4 USA teams playing in the whatever-the-Magners-league-is-now-called (like Italy) will give them a good core of top pro player to select a national squad from.

Later on they can set up a nationwide comp of their own as the top level as they have the population and finances for it to outgrow the 'Magners' but i feel that is their fastest route.
 
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I think USA can produce a good rugby team, and the nfl lockouts becoming more frequent, I wonder if any of those American football stars decide to crossover and play rugby. That will increase exposure of rugby in the USA. I mean they do have good ball carriers and runners in the NFL and some of them can probably slot in easy into a rugby team. They probably have to adopt a kick and chase game to get the best of the those players.
 
nush said:
I think USA can produce a good rugby team, and the nfl lockouts becoming more frequent, I wonder if any of those American football stars decide to crossover and play rugby. That will increase exposure of rugby in the USA. I mean they do have good ball carriers and runners in the NFL and some of them can probably slot in easy into a rugby team. They probably have to adopt a kick and chase game to get the best of the those players.
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Dunno, the thing is those guys are strong and fast, but they can't handle the pace rugby is played. The reason you see them running and hitting hard all game is because they take a 2 minutes break after every play... It's all about how the game made them, IMO. And even if you get good players training and coaching is a whole other business.

On the original post I would ask "what if the rest of the world started playing American Football". Even if good players emerge, the Americans will always have the edge of knowing all the little intricacies and they will always take the game one step further away from other countries.
 
You could also ask what if the Germans started playing rugby. No doubt they'd be as efficient as always with hundreds of new stats being introduced for every player! :D
 
I think with the introduction of Sevens Rugby into the Olympics the US will start dumping some big bucks and focus more on the reduced version of the game. This will probably impact the 15 as well but to a lesser degree. Don't forget that USA are the reigning Olympic Rugby Gold Medalists.
 
profitius said:
You could also ask what if the Germans started playing rugby. No doubt they'd be as efficient as always with hundreds of new stats being introduced for every player! :D
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I remember seeing the Germans playing American Football and destroying some other european team... It stuck to my mind because of the German equipment...they were wearing, black with the eagle in the middle. Looked very.... 1940ish...

712-388x230.jpg


pretty scary if you ask me.... :D
 
beerholder said:
Dunno, the thing is those guys are strong and fast, but they can't handle the pace rugby is played. The reason you see them running and hitting hard all game is because they take a 2 minutes break after every play... It's all about how the game made them, IMO. And even if you get good players training and coaching is a whole other business.

On the original post I would ask "what if the rest of the world started playing American Football". Even if good players emerge, the Americans will always have the edge of knowing all the little intricacies and they will always take the game one step further away from other countries.
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What he said.
 
What people have to remember when comparing rugby to American football, NFL players run for 30 seconds each play. Those monster you see in the NFL would be brillaint for the first 5 minutes of rugby, but the conditioning is so different, there is no way that they'd last against a quality team. One thing I think would happen if the USA invested heavily in rugby, is that there would have to be more stringent steroid tests, because it's not something that rugby has really had many problems with in comparrison to baseball, basketball and especially American Football. There is a biological reason why so many of the freaks in the NFL are so big.

If America did really want to take up rugby (and I don't think rugby has the commercial potential for US networks to really get in behind it), then you have a population of 310 million. To put that in perspective, South Africa has 49 million, France has 62 million, the UK has 62 million, Argentina has 40 million, Italy has 60 million, Australia has 22 million and New Zealand has 4 million. Adding that collectively and USA still has an additional 10 million people over all of the top 10 rugby nations. If they genuinely adopted rugby and became competitive, then they have the potential to become a force. The fact is, you couldn't chuck in a bunch of NFL players and expect them to become rugby players, you have to develop the game from the grassroots, which means highschools, universities and independent rugby clubs.
 
TRF_nickdnz said:
What people have to remember when comparing rugby to American football, NFL players run for 30 seconds each play. Those monster you see in the NFL would be brillaint for the first 5 minutes of rugby, but the conditioning is so different, there is no way that they'd last against a quality team. One thing I think would happen if the USA invested heavily in rugby, is that there would have to be more stringent steroid tests, because it's not something that rugby has really had many problems with in comparrison to baseball, basketball and especially American Football. There is a biological reason why so many of the freaks in the NFL are so big.

If America did really want to take up rugby (and I don't think rugby has the commercial potential for US networks to really get in behind it), then you have a population of 310 million. To put that in perspective, South Africa has 49 million, France has 62 million, the UK has 62 million, Argentina has 40 million, Italy has 60 million, Australia has 22 million and New Zealand has 4 million. Adding that collectively and USA still has an additional 10 million people over all of the top 10 rugby nations. If they genuinely adopted rugby and became competitive, then they have the potential to become a force. The fact is, you couldn't chuck in a bunch of NFL players and expect them to become rugby players, you have to develop the game from the grassroots, which means highschools, universities and independent rugby clubs.
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Well said, but NZ has 6 million +
Ireland have 6 million + (including NI) and it's rugby playing population, centers of excellence, professional leagues etc. that count not population. There's only 3 million in Wales but they have pro teams and good standards. America will always be dominated by American football, and Argentina will always be dominated by football (soccer) but at least they're into rugby in a standards way.
 
calculon said:
Well said, but NZ has 6 million +
Ireland have 6 million + (including NI) and it's rugby playing population, centers of excellence, professional leagues etc. that count not population. There's only 3 million in Wales but they have pro teams and good standards. America will always be dominated by American football, and Argentina will always be dominated by football (soccer) but at least they're into rugby in a standards way.
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Just you wait and see with the argies, there are a lot of steak eating brick shithouses over there and when they start seeing quad nations every year it will be the start if a revolution.

There's plenty of room for rugby to grow alongside footie in Argentina
 
beerholder said:
On the original post I would ask "what if the rest of the world started playing American Football". Even if good players emerge, the Americans will always have the edge of knowing all the little intricacies and they will always take the game one step further away from other countries.
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I disagree, the americans seem to entrenched in their system of things. Think the Springboks with a narrower view. (without offending the bok supporters)

If other countries turned their attention to NFL - I genuinely think the americans should be fearful. Along with AFL & Rugby League, the ability to punt/kick goals with an oval ball is peerless. The amount of current NFL attacking plays that would be nigh impossible to stop with specific players and using laterals would change the scope of the game. You could find that the Antipodeans may reshape attacking and defensive structures.

I think simply put for me - NFL seems to use man to beat man, whereas Rugby/League find it best to let the ball beat the man.
 
BBC article on the same today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14725789

Includes an interesting graphic

_55220300_rugby_a_football_624.gif
 

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