Thread: USA head home with no wins at RWC 2007

Who cares right? Well in all honesty I enjoyed watching a few matches ----I'm still learning to appreciate the game ---- and was surprised to see the USA compete at least somewhat on the international level. I don't know who plays rugby here especially at a semi-pro level.

Questions:

What is the popularity of rugby internationally?

Are most of the players paid professionals?

Anyway just thought I'd bring it up for discussion.

Justin

I've seen our team get their asses handed to them by the Aussies. That was the first time i tuned into the game for more than a few seconds. I will have to look into some summer leagues next year. Looks like a lot of fun.

Popularity is widespread globally and increasing. It used to be confined mainly to UK, France, and some of the Southern Hemisphere countries (South Africa, Australia, NZ, and loads of the Pacific Islands).

Now you have teams like Argentina, Italy, Japan, USA, Canada, Georgia etc. getting involved at international level.

There's Rugby Union (which is the World Cup being played now) and Rugby League. League is more akin to American sports in that there are a lot of stops and starts (like the 'downs' in American Football).

League was historically the professional game. Union was amateur or semi-pro. But Union tended to be more popular worldwide (some regions in the UK, e.g. the north, traditionally prefered League). However, Union is now all professional too since a few years ago. The effect has been to see an uptick in talent etc. in Union (some might argue about that!). Previously the best Union players would defect to League because of the pay. Now that's not the case anymore.

There is one other type of rugby which is my own favourite to watch and play: Rugby Sevens. Instead of 15 people on a pitch you have 7-a-side. Not being a big beefy guy I used to get flattened in 15s all the time. But haviong some speed (in my youth) I was good at Sevens. It's a faster, exciting game.

If you're fast, you can outrun 7 people on a rugby pitch. But ain't no way you could outrun 15 orcs lined up across the pitch in front of you!

P.S. James and the rest of you Aussies -- are you quaking in your boots? You face the current World Champions in the last 8, after all! [Cue the sledging... ]

leave it out mate !!

you wanna hope wilkinson doesnt twist an ankle before the final

you can be sure we'll be keeping a closer eye on him this time round

mind you... we are running low on space for more rugby trophies

Greg Frazer