Howcome Americans like NFL but not rugby?

Rugby is also kind of hard to get your eyes used to. It's kind of a garbled mess and it's hard to pick up the rules. I'll take Australian Rules before Rugby. That's much easier to pick up.

Wait, why did he kick it? Why does the scrum exist at all? What the fuck is going on? Oh, a touchdown... I recognize that. I'll admit - I have no fucking idea what's going on in a Rugby game.

I enjoy watching Rugby and I get the jist of it, but I gotta admit I've got no fuckin idea sometimes. Can't really call myself a fan in the circumstances but I still love watching it when it's on.
 
Rugby is also kind of hard to get your eyes used to. It's kind of a garbled mess and it's hard to pick up the rules. I'll take Australian Rules before Rugby. That's much easier to pick up.

Wait, why did he kick it? Why does the scrum exist at all? What the fuck is going on? Oh, a touchdown... I recognize that. I'll admit - I have no fucking idea what's going on in a Rugby game.

Well I can see how it might look like a garbled mess if you don't actually understand it.
 
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I grew up watching American Football, not Rugby. Exposure has a lot to do with what you end up liking. And at this point in my life I have very little interest in sports in general, definitely not interested in picking up new sports to follow.
 
I don't know a single player or even how to watch or which league is the best.

Ok you didn't ask but I can't resist lol.

So, rugby isn't like american sports where it's all centralised in one top league. Instead, there are a few different ones in different countries. On top of that club rugby isn't the highest level of rugby, the highest is Internationals.

Rugby is played all across the world, but due to time-zones, proximity etc. it is basically treated in terms of two halves - the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. The south was historically the best (sort of), but that's not true any more.

In the Northern Hemisphere there are three different leagues - the English (Gallagher for sponsorship reasons) Premiership, the Guinness Pro14 and the French Top14. Neither is clearly better than the other, just depends where you're from which you watch. The premiership and top14 are only English and French teams respectively, and the Pro14 is the clubs from Ireland, Wales, Scotland (used to be called the Celtic League), Italy and since last year - very strangely - two South African teams (used to be Pro12). I would say that, though I am obviously biased, that the Pro14 has some of the most entertaining play. The French league has the most money thanks to a huge TV deal and a massive salary cap, so they import a lot of great players from the southern hemisphere. But the style of play isn't always that great. There is also a European Cup which the best teams from each league qualify for.

In the Southern Hemisphere there is one league called Super Rugby - teams from New Zealand (the best by a massive margin), South Africa (historically a rugby crazy country with good teams, but less recent success), Australia (they prefer rugby league there, the clubs aren't that great), and one from Argentina and one from Japan. Super Rugby would be one of the best competitions to watch, very exciting and open style of play.

Each hemisphere has it's own international competition too. In the North it's the Six Nations - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy, in the South it's the Rugby Championship - New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina. But there are also yearly Test windows in the summer and autumn when teams from the north plays teams from the south, these have just ended for this year. Then every 4 years there is the Rugby World Cup.

To watch in the US seems like it's divided up across a few different ones (maybe you have some already, not sure how it works).

https://www.nbcsports.com/gold/rugby seems to have the English Premiership (obviously good quality too, and I am biased, but meh...), the European Cup and the Six Nations.

https://plus.espn.com/denied?block=geo ESPN+ app seems to have all the Pro14 games, maybe some like the final will be on ESPN3 or something. I believe you also get Super Rugby too.

There is also some thing called florugby, but no idea what they have really.

If you start watching you'll pick up the players I am sure.
 
Just watching tonight's Pro14 Hour, thought I'd record a wee clip, just a little example from the Glasgow game to continue @DeJulez's much needed education as to the technicalities and strategy of rugby, despite his claims that you don't need to know plays but just run "around in circles and jumping in piles." :D

Everything looks better with arrows @Kyryllo



This week is the Autumn Internationals so clubs aren't at full strength either, have a lot of young players in their line-ups since the best players are playing for their country.
 
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Ok you didn't ask but I can't resist lol.

So, rugby isn't like american sports where it's all centralised in one top league. Instead, there are a few different ones in different countries. On top of that club rugby isn't the highest level of rugby, the highest is Internationals.

Rugby is played all across the world, but due to time-zones, proximity etc. it is basically treated in terms of two halves - the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. The south was historically the best (sort of), but that's not true any more.

In the Northern Hemisphere there are three different leagues - the English (Gallagher for sponsorship reasons) Premiership, the Guinness Pro14 and the French Top14. Neither is clearly better than the other, just depends where you're from which you watch. The premiership and top14 are only English and French teams respectively, and the Pro14 is the clubs from Ireland, Wales, Scotland (used to be called the Celtic League), Italy and since last year - very strangely - two South African teams (used to be Pro12). I would say that, though I am obviously biased, that the Pro14 has some of the most entertaining play. The French league has the most money thanks to a huge TV deal and a massive salary cap, so they import a lot of great players from the southern hemisphere. But the style of play isn't always that great. There is also a European Cup which the best teams from each league qualify for.

In the Southern Hemisphere there is one league called Super Rugby - teams from New Zealand (the best by a massive margin), South Africa (historically a rugby crazy country with good teams, but less recent success), Australia (they prefer rugby league there, the clubs aren't that great), and one from Argentina and one from Japan. Super Rugby would be one of the best competitions to watch, very exciting and open style of play.

Each hemisphere has it's own international competition too. In the North it's the Six Nations - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy, in the South it's the Rugby Championship - New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina. But there are also yearly Test windows in the summer and autumn when teams from the north plays teams from the south, these have just ended for this year. Then every 4 years there is the Rugby World Cup.

To watch in the US seems like it's divided up across a few different ones (maybe you have some already, not sure how it works).

https://www.nbcsports.com/gold/rugby seems to have the English Premiership (obviously good quality too, and I am biased, but meh...), the European Cup and the Six Nations.

https://plus.espn.com/denied?block=geo ESPN+ app seems to have all the Pro14 games, maybe some like the final will be on ESPN3 or something. I believe you also get Super Rugby too.

There is also some thing called florugby, but no idea what they have really.

If you start watching you'll pick up the players I am sure.


Nothing I didn't know there but a damned good informative post, thanks for taking the time to type that.
 
nfl is useless live play is at top 2-3 minutes at anytime FOR ONE of 3 teams in a team(offense defense special teams) and then go get oxygen mask or sit on the bench. somebody say that they give 100% at each play please ,real football/soccer ,rugby those guys are giving 100% effort and 100% focus each play to, i mean in a second you can loose the ball in real football/soccer or rugby and you can't jog back to recover it or get back into position .in nfl most of the time games don't have picks so that means other team looses ball on downs. so nfl players don't give 100% effort or 100% focus at all

Thats not how it works. While the ball is being moved one side guys on the other side are just basically standing there and even the guys on their own side are just jogging playing zone defense while 2 or 3 guys are doing all the real tackling , until a breaktrought in the defense happens then they really sprint.



There is also lots of breaks, at 54 they whistle the play and then kick their field goal thingy and return to action until 2:40 and as I mentioned before you can see all the zone defense with guys standing there watching 2 - 3 guys tackling each other, offensive guys are not sprinting routes tryng to lose their markers because of the way defenses are spread in the field and the way the ball is passed.



The thing with downs is the runner will always try to advance the ball the most he can, in rugby when a guy sees 2 blockers in front of him he will slow down to pass the ball sideways looking to continue the play instead of bullrushing is way for maximum gain.
 
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Ok you didn't ask but I can't resist lol.

So, rugby isn't like american sports where it's all centralised in one top league. Instead, there are a few different ones in different countries. On top of that club rugby isn't the highest level of rugby, the highest is Internationals.

Rugby is played all across the world, but due to time-zones, proximity etc. it is basically treated in terms of two halves - the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. The south was historically the best (sort of), but that's not true any more.

In the Northern Hemisphere there are three different leagues - the English (Gallagher for sponsorship reasons) Premiership, the Guinness Pro14 and the French Top14. Neither is clearly better than the other, just depends where you're from which you watch. The premiership and top14 are only English and French teams respectively, and the Pro14 is the clubs from Ireland, Wales, Scotland (used to be called the Celtic League), Italy and since last year - very strangely - two South African teams (used to be Pro12). I would say that, though I am obviously biased, that the Pro14 has some of the most entertaining play. The French league has the most money thanks to a huge TV deal and a massive salary cap, so they import a lot of great players from the southern hemisphere. But the style of play isn't always that great. There is also a European Cup which the best teams from each league qualify for.

In the Southern Hemisphere there is one league called Super Rugby - teams from New Zealand (the best by a massive margin), South Africa (historically a rugby crazy country with good teams, but less recent success), Australia (they prefer rugby league there, the clubs aren't that great), and one from Argentina and one from Japan. Super Rugby would be one of the best competitions to watch, very exciting and open style of play.

Each hemisphere has it's own international competition too. In the North it's the Six Nations - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy, in the South it's the Rugby Championship - New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina. But there are also yearly Test windows in the summer and autumn when teams from the north plays teams from the south, these have just ended for this year. Then every 4 years there is the Rugby World Cup.

To watch in the US seems like it's divided up across a few different ones (maybe you have some already, not sure how it works).

https://www.nbcsports.com/gold/rugby seems to have the English Premiership (obviously good quality too, and I am biased, but meh...), the European Cup and the Six Nations.

https://plus.espn.com/denied?block=geo ESPN+ app seems to have all the Pro14 games, maybe some like the final will be on ESPN3 or something. I believe you also get Super Rugby too.

There is also some thing called florugby, but no idea what they have really.

If you start watching you'll pick up the players I am sure.

You forgot to explain the differences between Rugby union and Rugby league wich is probably another reason that makes the sport confusing.
 
Maybe Americans would prefer rugby league, as opposed to rugby union? I think league is known even less than union in the States?
 
International Rugby League & Union is the absolute shit. I pity American sports fans on that front - you've got no-one to really give you a competitive game in almost all of your major domestic sports outside of maybe Canada in hockey.

6 Nations about to start here.
 
I watched a rugby player beat the living fuck outta 3 football players in a bar in Nacogdoches one night. He went to jail and they went to the hospital.
 


More analysis for the guys who don't have a clue about rugby
 
I will be watching tonight as a matter of fact. USA Men's Sevens :)
 
There is also lots of breaks, at 54 they whistle the play and then kick their field goal thingy and return to action until 2:40 and as I mentioned before you can see all the zone defense with guys standing there watching 2 - 3 guys tackling each other, offensive guys are not sprinting routes tryng to lose their markers because of the way defenses are spread in the field and the way the ball is passed.

Of course they don't play non-stop for 80 minutes, but the ball is in play for way longer than an NFL game and over a shorter time span. It is not even comparable the breaks in a rugby game compared to NFL, especially rugby league which places much less prevalence on set-pieces like scrums and lineouts.

The thing with downs is the runner will always try to advance the ball the most he can, in rugby when a guy sees 2 blockers in front of him he will slow down to pass the ball sideways looking to continue the play instead of bullrushing is way for maximum gain.

It is not black and white. On an NFL play the running back might just fall down to try get back to the lime of scrimmage if the play has been blown up , he might willingly go into bounds as well (something you would never see in rugby). There are also plenty of plays in rugby where the runner will "always try and advance the ball the most he can". That is what forwards spend their entire careers doing, as well as hitting rucks at full tilt...or in league terms all they do is run the ball into 'hit-ups' non-stop. Backs will pass and run more complicated plays, but there are many instances- like a 12 taking a crash ball - where the only goal is the get the over the gain line. That's the bottom line on any play, getting over the gain line for maximum gain.
 
I think Americans do like rugby, it just isn't really marketed or televised here. I never played it in school growing up either - I barely know the rules.

I've watched it before and thought it looked cool - way better than soccer.
 
NFL can be as exciting as any other sport.
...
A sport is 'as exciting' as the fans investment in the rivalry. Once you have that, any sport is exciting for that fan.


I played both in high school. Football is funner, and pandered more to my shit cardio.
Opposite for me. I loved Rugby far more because of the need for cardio because of the non stop action and movement of everyone on the team. Football just has so much standing around or playing within a small space.
 
Opposite for me. I loved Rugby far more because of the need for cardio because of the non stop action and movement of everyone on the team. Football just has so much standing around or playing within a small space.

I was such a waste of athletic talent for a 5'11 white guy. 4.5/40 speed, I could cut, juke, spin, and do it well. Unfortunately I had the cardio of someone with asthma, but didn't have asthma. I could never figure it out, but sure loved those breaks in between plays lol.
 

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