Rugby and hip-hop http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=2138410 American 'power' athletes need to get out into the international sports stage. I'm a big football and basketball fan, don't get me wrong, but I'm saying that he next leap in professional sport is not arena football, it's International Rugby. I'll do what I have always done. I'll look into it. I'll put some people on it and make a plan. If it makes sense to me I'll go after it 100 percent. It seems to me that people have been playing rugby in this country for years and nobody really has gone after the big picture. I prefer the big picture. It's the only way I look at things. The plan is simple. First, we get the word out. Next we raise big money and get some serious sponsors onboard. Then we go out and get the best coaches in the world, the best athletes in America and train them to play top quality rugby. I'll send ROC Rugby around the world and when it's time to play an International match we'll put on the Red, White and Blue and see how long it takes to knock off one of the top ten international sides or the Barbarians. I don't think it will take that long! We're going to have some fun, make some money and RULE rugby, and it won't take ten years to do it! It's impossible to compete against teams like England, France, Australia and New Zealand when we only put our national team together for a game at a time. They need to be full time professional athletes if we expect to win; and I expect to win! So, I'm after a group of sponsors that feels the same way. People that want in on the ground floor of something that will be global; something that going to turn the world of international sport upside down are they planning a Rugby Union professional league in the U.S.?
Rugby fans' opinions regarding the merger of Rugby and hip-hop. A great read. Between a ROC and a hard place: More opinions http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=2151566 in respond to the FSW "The BACKLINE." This is the best thing that could happen to U.S. rugby. We have someone ready to front up with some cash, get kids involved in the game and bring it to a new audience -- Win, win, win. Furthermore, it is an American solution. Rugby in this country can't develop in some sort of international isolation. For sure there will be some 'conservatives' who are a little concerned by this development. They probably only see the specter of linguistically-deviant lineout calls, gridiron-style try celebrations and posses on the sidelines. Not to mention a new level of physical intimidation on the field. These are all knee-JERK reactions. The Backline is aware of a certain fundamentalist fervor among American rugby followers. It is entirely understandable in people who have discovered this great game and want to protect it from things they have rejected (namely Football). A certain amount of anti-Americanization vigilance is a good thing, but this is a time to look to the future. The game of rugby the Backline grew up with was constantly changing. It is part of rugby. In fact it is so constant that concept of 'purity' in rugby is largely meaningless: Is pure rugby professional or amateur? Should it revert to wingers throwing the ball into the lineout? How about going back to three-point tries? I bet a few noses went out of joint when jersey numbering was reversed and props started wearing No. 1 instead of fullbacks. Rugby cannot grow without changing. This partnership promises to be a new and exciting opportunity for rugby in this country. These guys are trendsetters, they could help revitalize rugby across the globe by taking it beyond 'the private school', but that is in the future. Right now, this partnership is good for the kids, it's good for the game, and it is good for the nay sayers to be exposed to a culture they might otherwise never experience first hand. Embrace it. It's 'dope'. If you think the Backline has dropped the ball, send us an e-mail and we'll print the best. what is your opinion on the matter?
The Rugby questions and answers Thread! (great thread for Rugby newbies) This is a thread where people new to the game can ask questions to educate themselves. Question: Rugby is King in what countries?
A: New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, white South Africa, Wales (ok, so it's not a country, but still ..), Papua New Guinea (rugby league). That's about it.
No, it is only really played in 2 of the 6 states: New South Wales & Queensland. (having said that it is king in those states - rugby league that is, rugby union is a fair way behind) In the other 4 states Australian Football (Aussie Rules) is king - and the majority of people would never have seen a rugby match. I know it is a bit hard to imagine, but picture the US where noone in the east of the country knew about american football, and noone in the west knew about baseball.
i thinl afl and cricket rule australia rugby is either catching up to league or has passed it i think the act brumbies were drawing more fans than the camberra raiders
Rugby is still a long way behind league. You need to remember that Super 12 is representative, not club, football. The season is only 11 games, so you have a maximum of 6 at home - yes, these get good crowds, as do internationals but it then stops. There is no free to air TV coverage of Super 12, whereas rugby league and aussie rules are the top rating free to air programs in their states of popularity, as well as being strong on cable.
What a bizarre couple of articles, based around an interview with a person who has no concept about the game of rugby or how it is run.
pardon me but I believe you are very wrong. So you are saying that the guy has no concept of rugby or know how it is run? He played rugby and he's organizing a rugby union in the inner cities (similar to what he's doiing with basketball) and you think he know jack about rugby? And he's investing hundreds of thousands if not millions into rugby and he's know jack about rugby?
From NFL reject to Rugby star. Great read for people who are new to rugby (like myself) and interested in a very well written piece though it's kinda old. Thanks to NeiB for finding the articles: Captain America Ex-college football player invades English rugby http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/thenetwork/news/1999/09/28/pageone_danlyle/ Huge Splash Across the Pond Would-be NFL tight end Dan Lyle has taken up a new game -- and reinvented it http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/rugby/world_cup/news/1999/09/14/si_lyle/ Interesting part: Besides, he has at least two World Cups in his future, and he points out that rugby may reappear in the 2004 Olympics after an 80-year hiatus. "Did you know we're the reigning Olympic champions?" he says. "Paris, 1924. I'll bet nobody in America knows that." is rugby part of the Olympics in Athens?
Also, since this thread will die with no discussion, how about this for a discussion that could spare this thread a few extra days of life? (and get us a Rugby Subforum like baseball/hockey *wink*wink* Lyle's astonishing rugby feats have spawned wild-eyed conjecture among the sport's American fans: What if more football players took up rugby? "They all say overseas that whenever we take this game seriously, we'll beat everyone, and it's true," says Lyle. "If I could get some All-Pros and train them in rugby, we'd go out and kick ass. Hell, I'll take all those guys who were second-team All-SEC but didn't make the NFL, guys who don't want to work for $25,000 a year at Kmart when they could be full-time athletes making $100,000, playing a sport that's pretty damn fun." If the US fill a team of NFL best and train them in rugby for 2 years, would we be the champion? Why or why not? I would love to hear your conjecture and I am sure others would as well.
How did you become a fan of Rugby? I am a fan of rugby after seeing Rugby Sevens on the Rugby Club a few weeks ago. I am 'very' new to the game and in the process of educating myself about it. It's been a lot of fun to watch so far. Thanks FSW for introducing me to this great game. So how did you become a fan?
With money, infrastructure and a large number of people and kids playing it it's not hard to get competitive right at the top level. It also helps that Rugby is not anywhere near as popular as other sports, apart from New Zealand and to an extent Wales it's not close to being the most popular sport in any of the top countries. Actually becoming World Champions is a lot harder, because in the end it all comes down to 15 vs 15 in a chaotic game.
The rare game on, I believe, FSN Pittsburgh years ago. Didn't become a fan until the World Cup this past year, though. Loved the games, have about 15 of them on tape and watch them regularly. Sykotyk
Heard about Canada beating Wales (in Wales) in the early 90's. A few days later the game was on TV, and I was hooked. The first live game I attended was Canada vs France in Ottawa.
If it were to make a reappearance at the Olympics - I guess it'd just be the damn silly 7s tournament style thing. It's how they did it at the Commonwealth games so I guess there'd be no difference.
Wow, this is great. Another English sport for Americans to invade. If we could just get a couple more guys playing abroad, maybe have the national team do well, it'll drum up enough interest for a domestic American league. Then people will start to talk about it. It will soon be so popular it will need its own forum, with pc4th as moderator...oh wait...these articles are from last century....nevermind
RWC South Africa 1995 Disclaimer: It's a long post. It's a trip down the memory lane, and lots of observations aren't purely sports related. Sports is just a part of day to day life, and can't be viewed in isolation with the rest of the world. Rugby Union World Cup 1995. The first "real" match I watched was the opening match - Springbok (South Africa) vs. Wallabies (Australia) at Ellis Park, Johannesburg. Springbok were heavy underdogs, Wallabies being the defending champions of the 1993 World Cup. But Springbok won the opening match, and shockingly went on to win the World Cup on home soil. It was a re-born nation just emerged from apartheid. ANC had won the elections. "Truth and Reconciliation" hearings had started to get past the brutal negativity of the past, and move on to the positive. There was an air of optimism. Racial integration had just started. One of the "sport" related memory that has stuck clearly in my mind is watching the opening ceremony of the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup live, with a speech by Nelson Mandela. Rugby Union was mostly a white man's sport till then. The 1995 Springbok team didn't have any blacks as far as I recall. But the nation as a whole didn't care. Black majority and whites got behind the Springbok and celebrated their victory with equal enthusiasm. It was a first major sporting event staged by the new South Africa. They were eager to show the world that they were ready for the 21st century. 9 years on, unfortunately I don't think all has turned out to be positive. Legal apartheid may be over, but economically black majority is still far behind. Very few blacks own any businesses, and crime is rampant in big cities like Johannesburg. In cities and rural townships filth pervaids. HIV/AIDS is a major crisis, especially for blacks. 2003 Cricket World Cup was partially staged by South Africa and was successful. They want to get the 2010 FIFA World Cup too. We'll see how that works out. But the 2003 Rugby Union Springbok team got embroiled in racism row and was miserable. Talking just sports wise (cut-and-paste from another post of mine): Until about 1995, Union was the less glamarous code compared to League (at least on a global scale). The 1995 Rugby Union World Cup in South Africa (and Jonah Lomu exploding on the scene then) is what gave a lot of glamor to Union. I think the explosion of satellite TV around that time helped Union too. The FIFA 1994 World Cup and Rugby Union 1995 World Cup opened my eyes to a new world of global exposure. Since then, I've had little interest in the closed minded nature of people running American sports (American Football, baseball, basketball) declaring their champions to be "World Champions". The sports by themselves may have few problems, or maybe fine, I just don't care. The bigger problems I see are with the people running them and the closed minded media. Sorry for the long post, and may not be what you were expecting. But to date, listening to the South African national anthem before the Tri-nations matches gives me chills. It is the anthem of the new integrated nation in 3 languages English (official), Zulu (black majority) and Afrikanner (language of whites, related to old Dutch). Unfortunately in the past, Afrikanner was associated with racism. I hope it's all in the past now. The words of the anthem talk of unity in all 3 languages. As if this wasn't enough, some more observations: Sometime in 1994 I had brief exposure to a USA vs. Russia "Rugby" match. ESPN2 was a new channel back then and hardly anyone got it on home cable. In a TV store, I recall a bunch of store employees gathered around this channel waiting for the Rugby match to start. Having been brainwashed by the NFL exposure, this "Rugby" thing made me a bit curious. Now after doing some research, it turns out that it wasn't a Rugby Union match. Instead it was a Rugby League match between the 2 national teams. http://www.amnrl.com/news/news_2002/080802.html Until about 2 years ago, I wasn't even aware of this big division between Rugby Union and Rugby League and found it a bit confusing. I still feel that this 100+ years of divide holds both Rugby's back from each other. Thinking about ESPN2 showing a Rugby League match in 1994: There is no fundamental issue with mainstream media showing non-American sports. Back in the late 80's ESPN used to show Australian Football matches live too, but killed it. I feel the mainstream media are insecure of the sports from the "other" world catching people's interest in America and hurting their bread-and-butter. In an ideal world, I hope we would get good coverage of Association Football, Rugby Union, Cricket, Australian Football, Rugby League, along with all the other American sports they bombard us with. But the real world is governed by supply-demand and laws of economics. So I guess, I'm fine with how things are slowly improving compared to before.
So no Olympics for Rugby Union (15 men)? I read that Rugby Sevens is trying for Olympics in 2012. One of the major criteria is that there isn't a lot of competition beside the top 3,4 teams.
All Blacks haka Another favorite moment of mine is watching the "Haka" before all All Blacks international matches. This is a Polynesian Maori war dance, and if you haven't seen this, try to catch it whenever. I've always compared the All Blacks to the Netherlands in Association Football - loaded with talent, expected to win in big tournaments, but coming up short. At least since I've started following the sport, they have always choked. I would like to see the All Blacks winning the next World Cup. Knowing how all of New Zealand gets energized behind their team during these events, I find it very appealing. Their style of fast-paced Rugby is very attractive too (similar to the attractive style of the Dutch in Association Football).
through my dad 10 years ago when he watched the wallabies on tv, i got interested and now i like rugby (not crappy league though)
***Mod Note*** Threads Merged I did that so that other threads would have their time up top and not be bumped out of the way. Additionally, I left the Union v League thread since it was a poll, and the Super 12 Union thread to see where it goes and to try not to combine Union with League as I have done in the past. I merged this thread to have a general info and news thread. 'nutter