I caught the Collegiate championships yesterday between Cal and UCLA. Every time I watch a rugby game, I am always entertained and feel like it's a much more fun game to watch than football. So my question is, why don't we watch more rugby? Is it exposure? Lack of understanding the rules? Not enough games to watch?

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

Its exposure more than anything. You see rugby only went professional in 1995 ,its only now really beginning to grow throughout the world. The media aspect of rugby hasn't really evolved much when you compare it to other big sports although its getting better.


Seems to be growing fast in your neck of the woods?


Also the rules are hard to get, I've been playing 15+ years now and even still I get surprised by the rules sometimes.

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I've watched a game or two.  I thought it was OK.  I certainly didn't like it better than football or soccer.   A lot of it just seemed awkward.

 

I won't claim to know much about the sport but I do know that the forward pass is hugely responsible for the success of the NFL to the point the NFL changed the rules to favor it.  I don't see a game that removes the forward pass gaining much popularity in that market.  This would be considered a boring NFL game.  Soccer has attacks, shots on goal, and goals.  I don't know enough about rugby to even know what the big plays are.

 

Another thing is the big reputation of rugby being the toughest and most dangerous sport because they don't wear pads and helmets.  To me, what I saw isn't even close to the violence of American football (probably for the same reason).  I know there are people who probably feel the opposite.  But there is no denying that the tackling in Rugby is way different.

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I've watched a game or two.  I thought it was OK.  I certainly didn't like it better than football or soccer.   A lot of it just seemed awkward.

 

I won't claim to know much about the sport but I do know that the forward pass is hugely responsible for the success of the NFL to the point the NFL changed the rules to favor it.  I don't see a game that removes the forward pass gaining much popularity in that market.  This would be considered a boring NFL game.  Soccer has attacks, shots on goal, and goals.  I don't know enough about rugby to even know what the big plays are.

 

Another thing is the big reputation of rugby being the toughest and most dangerous sport because they don't wear pads and helmets.  To me, what I saw isn't even close to the violence of American football (probably for the same reason).  I know there are people who probably feel the opposite.  But there is no denying that the tackling in Rugby is way different.

 

I guess I just liked the pace of the game. Very few timeouts or time on the field when there wasn't actual play going on.

 

I probably misstated when I said that I liked it more than football, but it was definitely a nice change of pace for these non-football times.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

I guess I just liked the pace of the game. Very few timeouts or time on the field when there wasn't actual play going on.

 

I probably misstated when I said that I liked it more than football, but it was definitely a nice change of pace for these non-football times.

 

I think that's the biggest knock on American football is all the stoppages in play.  Rugby and soccer fans don't really get it.  I think even NFL fans are annoyed by it.  But I think we generally understand it more.

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Rugby is very cool to watch.  Us Americans are brainwashed to watch what ESPN is ramming down our throat.  Ever notice how ESPN truly emphasizes the NBA on multiple shows throughout the day?  That's because ESPN & TBS have a mega-contract with the NBA ($2.6 billion annually between the 2 networks).

 

If the NBA had a contract with another network like the NHL does, ESPN would be bringing minimal news on the sport.  

 

Likewise, if the ESPN had a contract with Rugby, they'd be bringing us such coverage of the sport that those dudes would be household names that we'd be talking about over the dinner table.

 

It's all about the $$

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I caught the Collegiate championships yesterday between Cal and UCLA. Every time I watch a rugby game, I am always entertained and feel like it's a much more fun game to watch than football. So my question is, why don't we watch more rugby? Is it exposure? Lack of understanding the rules? Not enough games to watch?

Are you referring to Rugby sevens or regular rugby. I like watching Rugby sevens when I find iron tv but regular rugby IMO is not nearly as exciting.

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"Sucess Is Not a Goal, It is a By-product"

I caught the Collegiate championships yesterday between Cal and UCLA. Every time I watch a rugby game, I am always entertained and feel like it's a much more fun game to watch than football. So my question is, why don't we watch more rugby? Is it exposure? Lack of understanding the rules? Not enough games to watch?

I watched that game, as well as some of the semis and quarters. Really good stuff.

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
;
; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

Are you referring to Rugby sevens or regular rugby. I like watching Rugby sevens when I find iron tv but regular rugby IMO is not nearly as exciting.

 

 

It was Rugby sevens, and I think it is a bit more entertaining because it's a bit more wide open, faster paced, no scrums.

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
;
; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

It was Rugby sevens, and I think it is a bit more entertaining because it's a bit more wide open, faster paced, no scrums.

Agreed. I believe it will be in Olympic sport again which will be fun to watch.

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"Sucess Is Not a Goal, It is a By-product"

It was Rugby sevens, and I think it is a bit more entertaining because it's a bit more wide open, faster paced, no scrums.

 

 

Agreed. I believe it will be in Olympic sport again which will be fun to watch.

 

I'm starting to think I wasn't watching "Rugby sevens".  There definitely was some scrum action from what I remember. 

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I'm starting to think I wasn't watching "Rugby sevens". There definitely was some scrum action from what I remember.

There are occasional small scrums in Sevens. I think about 2-3 guys from each team will scrum compared to much larger scrums in regular rugby.

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"Sucess Is Not a Goal, It is a By-product"

I'm starting to think I wasn't watching "Rugby sevens".  There definitely was some scrum action from what I remember. 

There were smaler scrums, but nothing like the other game.

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
;
; "This is really good, you want a bite, Honey?"

When I was living in NYC some of my pub friends from 'cross the pond got me into watching the Six Nations tournaments. I really enjoy it. 

 

I'm a Wales fan. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aSr0y-G3rE

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Rugby, as a sport, bores me.. But one of the values that I love with rugby is that, generally speaking, it's full of sportsmanship. If a player carries out a nasty tackle in an opponent, it's normally through mistiming it, rather than any malice. Naturally there are times where it's done on purpose.


There also doesn't tend to be too much cheating going on..


I'm a huge football/soccer fan, but those elements in the sport frustrate me.


There's an old saying:


Football/soccer is a gentleman's sport played by hooligans, Rugby is a hooligan's sport played by gentlemen.

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80% of what I talk about is nonesense.. the other 25% is made up statistics...