I was reading in one of the Superbowl threads how little play there actually is. This got me wondering. American Football is very similar to Rugby Football, but with vastly fewer interruptions. So how popular is Rugby Football in America? Reading the USA Rugby website indicates 75K affiliates, and America is quite successful, being top of the second tier of rugby-playing nations. But beyond that I’ve drawn a blank.
It’s less popular than soccer. I can at least name a few pro soccer teams. My high school had a soccer team. But rugby? I bet half of America doesn’t even know what the point of the game is, let alone how it’s played or what the rules are. I doubt many people could even sketch the ball.
From what I’ve seen, it’s reasonably popular among people who play on a club level (I’ve known several avid players), but it seems to be pretty close to invisible as a spectator sport here.
I may be mistaken, but I also get the sense that it’s not a tremendously popular sport for play at the high school or intercollegiate level (though I imagine there are areas where it is).
Most adults don’t know anything about it whatsoever and you don’t really see anything about it in American media. It is played at some colleges and universities as a club sport and there are a few amateur leagues around in scattered places. I don’t think there are any large organized conferences at the college level or above. I have known a few people that have played rugby and even gone to their after-game parties. I thought I was shock-proof but those parties were pushing the limit.
It is pretty big at some colleges. Unfortunately it seems like for each school the rugby IMs(intermurals) are totally composed of one of two groups.
- The coolest bunch of guys. Having fun, competing hard, grabbing drinks after, respecting each other, joking, getting dirty etc.
B. Screaming pricks. Petty, vindictive, whiny, rules lawyering,every goddamn thing is a dick contest, cheap shot, rectal warts who assumed they would be playing for the NCAA football team.
Unfortunately the folks where I went were class B.
For some reason it is quite big in Denver. They have one of the top club teams in the nation (Barbarians) and have what may be the only rugby-dedicated stadium in the country. It seats 3000 (!). It hosted what is known as the Churchill Cup, where the U.S. and Canada national teams play against England, Argentina, and Irelands B teams, plus occasional national teams from other countries.
I’d say that 98% of Americans have no idea how the game is played or are aware of the rules. There is no professional rugby league in the country at all.
Well the USA leg of the World Sevens series is on this weekend in Las Vegas and no one’s put a thread up on it that I’ve seen. Shows there’s very little interest on this board at least. Las Vegas dopers should go and check it out - Tickets start at about $35 for a day pass. (Not sure if they’re sold out.
I think sevens might be the route to American popularity, it’s fast, skilful and seemingly made for TV (7 minute halves, plenty of room for ads). It’s inclusion in the Olympics might make a difference too. But as others have said above rugby’s got a long way to go before it’s big in America.
In college my buddies and I got the “full” sports package which included a lot of Rugby Union matches during the day when we were between (skipping) classes. We learned a lot of the rules from the internet while we watched the games. It was a relatively entertaining way to spend a winter afternoon, but we grew tired of it after a few months.
Rugby is even less popular than the WNBA, which is barely even on the radar in America.
At my university it was an excuse to get drunk. I didn’t play, but one of my roommates did. Rugby parties at our house consisted of a minimum of 4 kegs. One of them was a 10-kegger, but there were about 4 full teams there. The kegs were done by dark and the party just moved elsewhere.
At my college (UofI) we generally could field 4 squads, as well as a women’s team. But spectators were pretty much limited to SOs of players. (Second row myself - was very proud of the few occasions on which I played B squad.) And yes, the parties were legendary.
It is a club sport at my local high school.
As a spectator sport, it is way behind soccer and even lacrosse. I can’t remember the last time I saw it on TV. In fact, ISTR considerably more Austrailian Rules on the tube than rugby. I recently watched the movie Invictus, and found myself thinking how few folk in the audience would have any idea of what was going on in the game sequences.
It depends on your definition of some. I would say that it is a club sport at many colleges and universities. It currently is not sanctioned by the NCAA but that is likely to change in the next 10 years or so.
USA Rugby requires all participants to be registered (CIPP) and rugby in the US is organized. It is split by men and women, youth/hs, collegiate, and finally club. Each of these is then split into divisions with D1 being the highest level and D3 being the lowest level. Each club will belong to a local area union and that union will be a part of a larger, territorial union and those unions will fall under USA Rugby. Each year there is what is called a matrix season in that the games are sanctioned and recorded for the purposes of advancing in a playoff system towards a national championship and this is true for each divsion (DI, DII, DIII). At other times of the year teams play “friendly” matches which do not count towards anything.
Rugby in the US is growing, especially at the youth and high school level. And the US is considered a “sleeping giant” at the international level.
It is not as popular as lacrosse. I’d venture to say it’s not even as popular at the collegiate level as field hockey.
I’d be willing to bet that 95%+ of Americans have never actually witnessed any significant (say, 5 min. +) portion of a rugby football game. Indeed, it is quite possible that they’ve seen more of Aussie Rules than of Rugby, since at one point Fox Sports Net was regularly showing the Aussie Rules league highlight show.
In the early 1980s, when we first got cable television, Aussie football was a staple of ESPN, and I watched a lot of it. I still enjoy watching it when I can find it on Fox Sports.
Most people I know seem to think it is football with a slightly rounder ball and no pads.
I played one game in college, and realized I wasn’t a masochist. Hurt like hell, sprained my ankle, got pretty much beat up. But everyone parties hard after, even the opposing teams are invited, and some of the parties were epic. Even after playing the game, I have a hard time understanding it. A great bunch of guys and 2 assholes.
While you’re correct in that rugby is not as popular as lacrosse, you’d be incorrect with regards to field hockey. If the numbers at the USFHA website are current, field hockey has about a quarter of the participants as rugby in the US.
Also, Fox Sports used to show rugby on a regular basis. Then it just became the Fox Soccer Channel.
I did not say that field hockey was more popular than rugby.
I said it was more popular at the collegiate level. Meaning, more colleges field official field hockey teams than field official rugby teams.
And I’ve already stated that rugby is NOT an NCAA sanctioned sport. So if that’s how you’re defining popular well then of course it is. But just because it’s sanctioned by the NCAA doesn’t mean that more people play field hockey than they do rugby.
Close. It’s football without the forward pass or blocking. It’s the lack of blocking that really makes it a different animal.
it’s important to differenciate, between rugby union and rugby league, union is a boring version of the game, where they spend most of the time kicking the ball out, and in sloppy scrums, rugby league is more free flowing and requires more athleticism, it’s a mans game, played with very little protection, unlike the ridiculous padding and helmets worn by those flowers that play american football!.. 