May 29 2007
Rugby Union Still Baffles Me
In an attempt to further expand my football horizons beyond the codes I can actually understand, I watched parts of a couple of big rugby matches over the weekend — the Super 14 Final, which is rugby union (and not without controversy, apparently), and the first game in the Australian State of Origin Series, which is rugby league.
I’ll just say this. If the creators of Rugby League aimed to create a game that was more accessible to the common fan… well, mission accomplished. For an American football fan who’s a total rugby newbie, rugby league is much easier to follow.
Rugby union has lots of rucking and mauling and lineouts and such, and the strategy of the game still flies over my head. It’s almost as if you have to grow up with the game to understand it at all. Rugby league? It got rid of all that and boiled the game down to the essence — advance as far up the field as you can before getting tackled five times, then kick the ball away. Of course, you can kick the ball whenever, and a kicked ball is a live ball in both codes. So if you can kick it to a teammate, hey, all the better.
The Rugby Union World Cup will be a much harder sell than the FIFA World Cup in this country, which may be why it’s only on Setanta Sports, the one network willing to cater to rugby fans. On the other hand, if ESPN follows through on its rumored threat plans to buy Setanta, will it attempt to sell us on rugby here? Can it explain this game to a gridiron-obsessed viewing audience? And will it even bother to explain that there’s also a Rugby League World Cup in 2008?
It’s no wonder that Association football is the world’s preferred football game. It’s the only game where everyone can agree on the rules…
RSS Feed
Madness. Rugby union is the tits. League is watered-down rugby.
Just watch Aussie Rules and stay away from all that union/league rugby hubub and you’ll be fine. It seems to work for me.
Ryano: I may just have to take you up on that. It would be much easier to do, though, if I weren’t on the other side of the planet.
Aussie rules will never work in the USA. It’s the uniforms. Americans think they’re watching the Village People ponce about. All that leaping with shorts caught fair and square up their cracks. Nasty buisiness
Indeed. I have an idea for you, I just read about news corps ‘My Network TV’ over there in the US, I hear they show this thing called International Fight League. If they are going to show two blokes beating the shit out of each other they might as well show live or replays of AFL games, what do you think?
It’ll be a hit, just like it was on ESPN back in the 80’s!
All you need is an American host to explain the rules. I think you should volunteer Dave.
I already have. For whatever reason, though, ESPN isn’t calling my agent. They’re too busy promoting that other AFL. Maybe if you could get Jon Bon Jovi to buy the Melbourne Demons…
Well I hear Eric Banner is a big St Kilda fan, so maybe he’ll feel sorry for the Demons and buy them out.
On another tangent I wonder if the Arena Football League and Australian Football League will ever go to court over the right to the AFL brand name.
http://ssrugby.com/aboutrugby.asp
Essentially, what makes Union the balls is rucking, and league does away with that for a watered down version of rugby. It’s like comparing Mikes Hard Lemonade and Bushmills.
I tried playing league last summer, but running straight just got old, so I went back to watered down union aka sevens. Now there’s a sport that could take off in the USA (http://youtube.com/watch?v=_fubKugita0)
Basically, union is a field position game. You aren’t guranteed to maintain possession for long amounts of time because you have to release the ball when tackled. So, you see a lot more kicking in the union game. Sometimes this bogs down the game, but its still fun to watch.
I think league is more fun to watch overall (more flow), but its scrum is pointless and it lacks the physical element of union. Each code has its strengths and weaknesses, but both fulfill the primary objective of any good football code: beat the hell out of the other guy.
Matt, are you serious? Rucking makes it the balls? Your easily pleased lol
Alan, fair assumption, one adjustment…. So, you see a lot more kicking in the union game. This usually bogs down the game, making it rarely fun to watch.
As fir the author Dave..If the creators of Rugby League aimed to create a game that was more accessible to the common fan… well, mission accomplished…. the creators of Rugby League are people just like you who 100 years ago realised that to obtain payments for players they neded people through the gates, thus they needed a more attractive game. Rugby League is Rugby Union, just 100 years advanced.
Unfortunately the trials going on in South African schools is the IRB attempting to breathe life into a poorly performing sport. The one thing the ‘brains trust’ failed to do was provide adequate real game review of the sport as it travelled into professionalism. Yes the players are fiiter and stronger, meaning less can be committed to the breakdown, closing defensive gaps even further. Yes, fitter, bigger defensive lines are no longer sliding, but moving up an in forcing more errors and even more negative gains, making teamsn kick more ofte. Yes, a line out is hardly ever straight, yes there are way to many infringements. Rugby League has it’s flaws, ever so slight as it is fundementally correct in what it’s operational task is designed to achieve. A game of attrition where individuals combine as a team to out muscle, out manouvre, out pass, out kick, out leap, out run, out think, out wrestle, out create and ultimately out score there opponents.
…It’s almost as if you have to grow up with the game to understand it at all.
Well not entirely. I took up Rugby at 36, played to a reasonable standard, coached to premierships, and feel I have a reasonable understanding of the game now. I had played Rugby League for 5 years before that, but simply got bored with what may be a good spectacle, but is a monumentally monotonous game to play.
The great thing about Rugby is that it is designed for the players, not the crowd. You want to understand Rugby, go play it, or referee it. It is a sport that has everything - a role for all body types, constantly changing game situations, a genuine contest for the ball, almost limitless capacity for mindless violence towards one’s opponent, and above all else, a social fabric unsurpassed in any sport.
Hard to understand, occasionally maddeningly frustrating, complex, and subtle, but continually very rewarding. Come join us …
I’m assuming you’re in the USA (from the ‘compare everything with Gridiron’ focus) - there is a flourishing College Rugby circuit, and the USA national team is credible, if not world beating.
Alan,
As a player who plays a pivotal union position (flyhalf) who relies on my forwards to win ball, not just crash into opponents, then yes - from my perspective- that’s what makes union the proverbial balls. Yehudi really hit the nail on the head: As fun as league is to watch, to play it is remarkably mundane, and talk to any player who has switched codes (i.e. tongans playing club rugby in the US) and they will tell you the same.
You can’t tell me there aren’t similarities between gridiron and rugby union.
@Yehudi:”I’m assuming you’re in the USA (from the ‘compare everything with Gridiron’ focus) - there is a flourishing College Rugby circuit, and the USA national team is credible, if not world beating.”
I’m also in the USA. One of the cable college sports networks recently showed the USA college rugby championship game, my alma mater, University of California, Berkeley (which has been playing rugby union off and on since the 1880’s), beat BYU, if I recall the score correctly, 33 - 3.
Unfortunately for rugby in the USA, the college game is a club game; no scholarships, no extra funding that other sports get.
Like Dave, I’m in the USA, and yes, if you grew up on gridiron, it is much easier to watch rugby league. Rugby union’s constant fussiness over rucks and scrums and lineouts and penalty kicks and other stuff is just baffling. Rugby league is much easier to watch and pick up quickly if you grew up with gridiron. It’s fairly straightforward.
I agree at first is seems chaotic, but rugby union is a game of skill, strategy and ultimately a wider spectrum of physical ability is required. Brute force and technique for the scrums - timing, jumping ability and coordination for the line outs - precision and ball handlng skills for the backline - and obviously kicking not just for accuracey, but for touch and placement. Tackling is exremely important - this goes without saying. But there are even different types and reasons for different types of tackles.
Sounds complicated but coming from an American that started playing at 18 in college, you basically play one game and it becomes very clear, very fast what you need to do. It takes years to become “good” at rugby. The main thing I can say in support of union is that it is largely a game of reaction. The team that responds best to the opposition usually wins. Fitness is key here as well because the fitter team will win all other things being equal. Watch a few more matches, I promise you will get into it.