Rugby Union & USA?????

[John_Travolta]

Whats doing, I mean I know the USA has ALOT more hugely popular sports IE, NHL, NBA, MLB, AND NFL, AND SOCCER now , but they reckont hey wanna really compete and let the american ppl in on it.....I found out just now that the american public if they wanna watch the World Cup they have to ppv it....."PAY PER VIEW" ....WHAT a joke.

Troy

 

[bayrep]

The USA has been playing for years with the sport being reasonable at the university level down the east coast ? I think. If they could just get some more coverage and sponsorship it would take off over there. I hope the USA do well, I like their style and never say die attitude.

 

[roopy]

The USA claims to have 80,000 current players and up to 200,000 ex players in the country.
Despite the big numbers, they have never been able to get together a good team.
Union is considered a 'joke' sport over there. It is only played by guys not good enough to play American football, so every team is social in nature.
I recently had a talk (on the net) with some guys who play in the top comp in America and one of their star forwards is 52 years old and 135 kgs. You can just imagine the speed of the game with players like that.

 

[Marcus]

Whats doing, I mean I know the USA has ALOT more hugely popular sports IE, NHL, NBA, MLB, AND NFL, AND SOCCER now , but they reckont hey wanna really compete and let the american ppl in on it.....I found out just now that the american public if they wanna watch the World Cup they have to ppv it....."PAY PER VIEW" ....WHAT a joke.

Troy

No true, they can watch all the games on foxsportsworld, but its all on a 72 hr delay.

 

[Marcus]

Union is considered a 'joke' sport over there.

Thats a harsh way to put it don't you think? This is the same "joke" sport that league tries to recruit players :roll:

True is rugby in the US will never be big until a professional competition is established. Even if that happens it will lag behind the big 4 and will most likely never reach that same level. Still if it could reach the level of the MLS then thats a lot to be proud of.

 

[chileman]

It's a pity they have to beef up the security for all the USA games, they feel as if they can't be safe anywhere anymore!

 

[Stevo_G]

pretty hard when only just under 2000 people go to the national club gf

 

[John_Travolta]

Marcus, I think you`ve been miss-informed, I`ve got a reliable source that says otherwise, but I don`t really care either way so I`ll take your word for it haha<<<<how was that , double dutch or what.
Hard to believe them 200,00 number aswell.....dunno

Troy

 

[CanadianSteve]

Union is considered a 'joke' sport over there.

Thats a harsh way to put it don't you think? This is the same "joke" sport that league tries to recruit players :roll:

True is rugby in the US will never be big until a professional competition is established. Even if that happens it will lag behind the big 4 and will most likely never reach that same level. Still if it could reach the level of the MLS then thats a lot to be proud of.

Yes, if they could get something like MLS going they might really develop the game. I read a Dan Lyle comment a while back that if they could just get some of the college football players who are just short of NFL caliber to take up rugby, they would have a lot of good players potentially. Although I'm not sure how far a country could go with players who take up the game in their 20's as opposed to starting younger. The US would be a sleeping giant of rugby if they ever took up the game in larger numbers, as they have so many great athletes playing high school and college football.

 

[Auckland4ever]

I remember thinking about this before. I'm not sure I'd like the US to take to rugby or league. How long before they'd totally dominate it?

 

[dimitri]

hopefully quicker than what its taken them to play modertaley ok union

although they are the defending gold medallists in union

 

[zulu]

Union is considered a 'joke' sport over there.

Thats a harsh way to put it don't you think? This is the same "joke" sport that league tries to recruit players :roll:

True is rugby in the US will never be big until a professional competition is established. Even if that happens it will lag behind the big 4 and will most likely never reach that same level. Still if it could reach the level of the MLS then thats a lot to be proud of.

Kain Cross in the centres for the USA? The guy grew up in Sydney and played halfback for the mighty Norths Devils in about 94. He's about as yanky as big Arnie. The sport must be a joke over there.

Love all the white guys and Maoris in the Japan team too and 90-8 today? Tell me which Aussie footy team was in a contest today. The one in NZ or the one that was forced to play in front of continual Mexican waves.

Farce, just like the RLWC.

 

[Parra_Eels]

usa were pretty tremendous against fiji and they are the gold medallists in union which is quite funny.

 

[Auckland4ever]

Farce, just like the RLWC.

So why are you watching the "farce" at all?
The difference between this farce & the one that was the RLWC is that this farce will generate revenue. If the IRB has any vision at all(debatable) hopefully some of that revenue will find its way to minnow rugby playing countries, USA included.

 

[zulu]

Yeah, the rugby admin has done a great job marketing the stuff compared to the league WC. Fans are just happy to be in a stadium where they can perform mexican wave after mexican wave and throw things in the air. Singing various songs is also a treat. I think many of them wouldn't care if there was rugby being played in front of them or not. Going by the standard so far, I think anything but rugby would be ideal.

 

[In-goal]

Yes as mentioned above the only difference between the Rugby and union WC's is the ability for the union to turn a proffit.

 

[weasel]

I think there are some good signs already from this cup that the competition in 2007 and onwards will be a lot better. Japan have been very competitive (and there really isn't that many non-asian players in the squad) and the one game we've seen of the U.S. has been encouraging also. Hopefully these positive results and support from the IRB will help these two teams to grow more competitive by '07. I imagine Italy will be vastly improved in four years time. They have only played four seasons in the Six Nations, given that same length of time for continued experience against the top echelon of teams and they can be competitive. Improvement isn't beyond the likes of Romania and Namibia either. Remember Rugby's only been professional since '95 so of course the teams with the best resources to take advantage of that are going to widen the gap for a few years before the lesser nations can catch up.

 

[Blade]

The USA claims to have 80,000 current players and up to 200,000 ex players in the country.

...where exactly did you get those figures from, Roopy? I'm having a difficult time fathoming those numbers.

Despite the big numbers, they have never been able to get together a good team.

...a good team by international standards is what I'm assuming you're saying. Right? There quality of play is not as bad as some may think. They play a very open style of game with much emphasis on backline play/movements and keeping the leather alive and flowing. Quite entertaining and good actually. Of course, I'm talking about "club" rugby as opposed to the national side who I haven't seen play in several years.

Union is considered a 'joke' sport over there. It is only played by guys not good enough to play American football, so every team is social in nature.

...and you base these comments on what exactly? Social (in a fun and entertaining nature) yes (and how is that different than the game in say Aus?), but the rest of your comments are what I find a joke. To say rugby union is "only played by guys not good enough to play American football" is absolutely ludicrous. Only? Several people from all walks of life play union in the States. You'd be surprised to learn how many people despise NFL in the States, and thereby search for an "alternative" or something of a similar yet different nature.

I recently had a talk (on the net) with some guys who play in the top comp in America and one of their star forwards is 52 years old and 135 kgs. You can just imagine the speed of the game with players like that.

...so based on his age and weight, you can come to a, somewhat, reasonable and credible conclusionas to the speed of the game in the States? Fair dinkum mate :roll:

This is not a flame mate, but for someone who knows, and is genuinely interested, so much about the game on a truly global scale (and correct me if I'm wrong here), much of what you've stated is simply no more than a poor assumption on your behalf.

Quite the contrary you may believe, but please clarrify the points I've questioned you on.

Blade.

 

[Auckland4ever]

Yes as mentioned above the only difference between the Rugby and union WC's is the ability for the union to turn a proffit.

Thats a pretty important difference.
Dont get me wrong, the union cup is way over-hyped & no where near as watched as it pretends to be & yeah, the match ups pre-quarter finals are mostly drab mis-matches, but there are still enough quality teams to make it a legit competition & enough revenue generated to see it become a permanent fixture.
My biggest wish for RL is that in time we see something on the same scale that is sustainable & a big contributer in funding the growth of the game. My biggest fear is that there are too many self interested factions within the greatest game of all to see such a thing ever happen.

 

[russ13]

the last time i looked at the RU stats for playing numbers in the US the total player number was 37,000 & this included 12000 wemon. They had something like 1500 clubs. A search of these clubs reveals about 80 of these clubs only had one member. Fully 700 about 45% had 25 of fewer players.

Considering the population of the US this is very tiny.
have a look here-a little dated-have a look at Dissertation 2 'the distributation of RU since 1945'
http://www.grcnet.20m.com/custom.html

To say RU in the US has a poor reputation is not an understatent. Drinking before the game, a haven for the unfit & unathletic is rife in the game in the US. RL found this out when they played the Wigan & Widnes game in Milwaukee 10 years ago. Being asociated with RU was a no-no; Harry Edgar pointed this out in his article 'What Made Milwaukee Famous' for XIII Worlds(1996) edited by Dave Hatfield;(page 185)

"...the game was to be given good quality television coverage: and second, that there be absolutely no link between rugby league & rugby union. The 15-a-side, code which 99.9% of Americans perceived to be the only 'rugby' has an appalling image in the USA; one centered around drunkenness, college boy behaviour and second rate athletes."


Just do a google search and put in 'rugby (drunkenness).' See how mant references there are to it in the USA.