I dated a kiwi for years and she showed me a bunch of All Blacks games. I have NO IDEA why this sport isn’t bigger in America. It’s fast paced, violent and fun. It should be huge in America!
The reason why it's not more popular is probably because of the New Zealand rugby union tour of North America in 1913.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_New_Zealand_rugby_union_tour_of_North_America
> New Zealand took the tour seriously, with a squad led by veteran player Alex McDonald that won all their matches in North America with **large victories, conceding only 6 points in 16 games.** The only test was played against the United States, which included players from Stanford and Berkeley.
> As a result, the University of California returned to football in 1915.
Basically USA got beaten so hard they decided to stop playing.
For an article on it, here: http://en.espn.co.uk/newzealand/rugby/story/204045.html
No commercial breaks. America wouldn't touch this sport because it can't be mercilessly capitalized. NFL is designed for endless commercial breaks so the rich can get richer.
Closest thing to this in American football is when some skinny ass 6’2” quarterback gets mauled by a 6’6” 325 pound defense tackle as he releases a deep bomb for the 6.
Why don't they do lateral passes more often in the NFL? As i understand it you can pass the line of scrimmage and still do it, but you hardly ever see it done. Anyone know?
Too risky compared to Rugby. In American football, you risk a turnover when you lateral the ball, whereas if you are tackled play stops and you get a chance to reset and run another play, which is advantageous. Defensive scores are rare, so you want to be on offense. In Rugby, play is continuous unless a penalty occurs, so you might be able to get the ball back quickly anyways.
In football you mostly only see laterals at the end of a game when a team must score to win, because they have no alternatives and the risk is losing, which you are going to do anyway if you can't score.
Great video. Though weirdly long for such a short answer.
Lot of the confusion you’re gonna see on here is that Reddit has a ton of Americans, and in American Football whether a pass is forwards or backwards is based entirely on the release and catch points. (Though I believe there’s some exact phrasing in the rules about where exactly those two points are defined). So to borrow a phrase from the video, it’s whether it’s forwards or backwards relative to the field, not the players.
It makes perfect sense though. The lateral pass is not an integral part of American football so forward passes that try to benefit from lateral rules would be unnecessarily hard to judge. Meanwhile in rugby, you could have more lateral passes on a single play than an entire American football team will have in a season. And if we discount end of the game shenanigans, an American football team may never throw a lateral.
Rugby often looks like that because they’re all running forward so fast and hold the ball put in front. It can look forward relative to the players body, but the path when the ball was released is horizontal or back, even if after a step the player appears in front.
That was the “try of the year” highlight edit. This is the broadcast version: https://youtu.be/UeSaAOvt7uE
The close up view from the OP is awesome because it highlights the passing, but you need the context of the wide view first, then after you watch the wide view and your like “holy shit was that last pass behind the back?” You can watch the close up and see that it was in fact a perfectly time behind the back pass.
Most modern video players have speed controls anyway, so regular speed should be the default and let the user slow it down if they want to. Slow-mo to look cool (especially when it's interspersed with full-speed) ruins so many videos.
Books have been written about the team culture of the New Zealand All Blacks. Even as an English Rugby fan, I get excited any time I see an All Blacks game – they are so fucking good.
I know nothing of rugby as well and the passes were a delight to watch, cherry-topped by my realization that the final catcher was the very same player (22) that started the chain.
My ex wife worked at a US bar where occasionally Aus Rules would be on the TV shortly before close. She doesn't like sports but told me one day she was really getting into it. I asked if it was just for the ogling. She denied it. I asked her to name to one rule. Any rule. Even just one of the ways to score. She could not. Fair though, I don't really know how volleyball works, but I'd watch women's volleyball when it was on.
We get to learn plenty about the personalities of NFL stars once they end up on the news for beating their wives, firearms offences, dogfighting, manslaughter charges pertaining to a DUI, or taking a knee.
I was a winger back in the college days. Tore my ACL in year two and I still have issues with my knee 20 years later. Still the most fun I've played in any sport.
There was definitely a couple of passes in there which looked close to being forward on this camera angle - can definitely understand why it took a long time to review.
I know nothing of Rugby either, but damn what constitutes a “down?”. One guy was tackled with ball in hand and some other team mate just runs up and takes the ball and starts running again.
Edit: I have been sufficiently educated on the subject, thank you for the replies!
When a ball carrier "downs" he is not allowed to get back up with the ball. Neither is the tackler allowed to take it and get back up. An imaginary "gate" is formed shoulder width over the fallen runners position, and the runner is allowed to pass the ball in a backwards direction from that point. The opposing team has the opportunity to take the ball and do this themselves, but only after they have pushed thru the bounds of the imaginary gate. That's why you see the second guy in a black shirt coming over top the first when he goes down. There are also penalties and out of bounds plays but at a high level play is usually a lot more continuous.
Edit: really fun rugby fact most outsiders wouldn't know: in order to score a try you can't simply run thru the end zone like American football. You actually have to be in possession of the ball, and physically be able to touch the earth of the goal zone with the ball. There's even a strategy in rugby where 2-3 guys shoulder to shoulder can let someone plow them over only to fail to score a try when they can't reach the earth due to the pile of body's they're stuck on top of
That rule is relatively new, back in the day, there was no rule against treading on players in a ruck
One NZ player famously had his testicle torn open in a ruck by a set of cleats and continued the match until the team discovered just how bad the injury was
The body basically forms the new offside line. To get back over to the ball you have to cross through the player-gate. Hence the ruck shoving each other pack and forwards over the offside line
When a mistake is made (Eg. dropping ball forward, passing the ball forward), or when the ball is out of bounds.
Rugby is super technical, so many mistakes are made.
Rugby also goes through different meta's. So in some meta's it's better to keep the game going as long as possible by running and passing, and in some meta's it's better to kick the ball to your opposition in their territory, and put pressure on them so they make mistakes.
Can the other team not grab the ball when the guy is down? I always found that bit confusing. Like in this clip the guy falls and stretches back towards his team mates, but the blue players don’t attempt to grab it? They just sort of hug him from the other direction?
They can, but there are rules to it. You form what's called a ruck, and basically try and get a bunch of guys to wrestle over each other until space is cleared for somebody to grab the ball. Because of onside/offside rules and the fact that the tackled guy wants to turn towards his teammates, it's usually far easier for the teammates to pick up the ball than the opposing team.
to answer this better, we called it going through the gate...basically where the person is down a "ruck" is formed...when that ruck is formed you have to go through the gate. To put it into football terms think of someone bull-rushing and offensive lineman...only in rugby you cant just get a running start and try to level the guys its about pushing them back past the ball and your ruck overtakes there ruck. Once that happens and your team has control of said ruck you have possession and players from your team can control the ball. With that being said you cannot go in from the side and just try to grab the ball and you cannot play the ball from your knees. Sometimes this is a judgement call made by the ref as I have had instances where I believed my team had control and the ref did not believe so causing a 10M penalty. Also alot of times in rugby unless you have a gaggle of guys around contesting rucks can be counter productive, because your using a lot of energy to contest and the more guys in the ruck the less on the "fence" to prepare for the offense to run with the ball. Sorry if this is confusing but trying to explain as best I can as someone who played football for 14 years and rugby for 6 lol.
The easiest way of explaining it is that all your players need to be on your side of the downed player first which takes time for both teams, but that tends to be true for the attacking team anyway (because they’re the one running up the pitch). And secondly you can’t go around the downed player to grab the ball you have to step directly over them.
Which does mean very few tackles end in a turnover, but you have to remember that rugby balls are twice the size of footballs so when someone really hits you they’re quite hard to hold on to.
That made the most sense to me, I think. Basically, if the guy running the ball goes down, there's a good chance his team his behind him. Therefore, they could just pick the ball up and keep it going. Where as since a lot of the defenders are chasing him, when the ball carrier goes down, every defender would have to run to the other side of the ball first to be able to pick up the ball. Is that correct?
Also, since the teams know this, often the first attackers to make it to the downed player wont grab the ball, but start pushing any opposing team off him so his team can get the ball safely. Like in this clip when the guy does go down, one defender starts reaching over him to grab the ball until someone runs in and pushes him back.
Oh and to answer your second question: When a player is tackled (downed player), he has 1 opportunity to make 1 movement (place the ball, or pass it). After that, the first arriving opposition player may try to take the ball while he is on feet - and he also only has one opportunity to do this, effectively.
Rugby doesn’t really have the same breaks, fouls and errors can lead to the ball being turned over to the other team and free kicks. But play only stops for more than a few seconds when there’s a penalty an injury or points are scored.
Have to say I watched all my life, and even played a little, never realised how well rugby flows until I tried to watch American football, the amount of pauses are maddening.
American who played high school rugby, hard agree. I can't handle watching American football unless it's just in the background, I get antsy. I remember even the line-outs move fast in rugby and those involve lifting up other players!
Basically the game stops when the ball goes out (I believe it needs to touch the ground or the carrier needs to put a foot or knee/hand whatever outside), when there is a foul, when a team scores and for half and full time.
Edit:
The "possession" is not set like in US football. There are no X attempt at gaining Y yards. It's free, like it is in a fumble case. Imagine it's always fumble time, anybody can pick the ball and run to score in the "endzone" except the ball needs to touch the ground for the try/touchdown to be counted.
Rugby is a real time strategy game. American Football is a turn-based strategy game. That's about it.
Saying there is never any movement in Gridiron is equivalent to complaining that only 5% of the action of a chess match is actually moving pieces around the board.
Bro it’s Reddit, trust me. Any big sub that has a post on front page has this same exact argument except with whatever the topic of the post is. Redditors are ridiculously argumentative and always have to be right lol
Play doesn't end when a player is tackled, a 'ruck' can be formed to allow both teams to compete for it. However, if the player passes the ball to someone before it is formed then play continues uninterrupted.
Play only ends if someone commits an infringement, if the ball goes out of bounds 'into touch', or someone scores.
That was really helpful, thanks!
One thing that didn't get explained is why the players run towards the goals in the try-areas instead of placing it down just anywhere inside the try-area. Is that just a celebration thing?
So the conversion after the try needs to be done on a line drawn across the location the ball is touched down. So imagine a line across the place where the ball touches down perpendicular to the goal posts. The person who kicks the ball can place the ball anywhere on this imaginary line and go back as far as 22 meters (iirc) from the line that marks the touchdown area. So running towards the post is an attempt to make it easier to succeed the conversion coz it is always easier to kick straight than at a very shallow angle.
That being said there are some amazing conversions done at these impossible angles
Hope this helps
After a try, a conversion is taken, which is basically an attempt to kick the ball through the goal posts for extra points. The kick has to be taken from where the ball was touched down (obviously further back than the try line) so a touch down between the posts gives the kicker the best angle to score.
When a player goes down, both teams can form a “ruck” over the downed player and use their feet to kick the ball out/back to their team, when the ball leaves the ruck, the scrum half picks it up and resumes play. Unless there is a foul, a try or the ball goes out of bounds, the game continues.
It is a brutal, exhausting and amazingly fun game.
Urm nothing. The only way the game stops is from a foul, a forward pass, or the ball going out of play. Once a player goes down, they have to give up play to the ball like you saw the other team. If they are fast enough, they could take the ball of them. But as you saw, that did not happen. If they are close to taking the ball, a player on the team that player did take the hit could attempt to tackle the player making a ruck. But the defending player decided to guard instead, which is a bit iffy from the prospective you saw, but from what he saw, it seemed like the best idea.
The level of competition in Rugby is fairly strange to people who aren't used to it. In this clip Namibia looks like amateurs, and compared to the All Blacks or Boks we basically are. But we're also good enough to make the World Cup in every instance this century, where we are 0 wins and 22 losses all time.
The next World Cup is later this year but it will take a miracle for us to finally get a win lol.
There are some articles out there that say a typical NFL game has 11 minutes of game play.
The best part is that they are instituting rules to shorten football games (at the collegiate level) because they’re getting to be too long. The reason the games are so long is because they insist on having a commercial break after every few plays.
They are shortening the actual gameplay time even more so that they can fit more ads in. As a football-loving American, it’s a disgrace.
I'd love to watch American football as tactics really interest me, but growing up watching shit like this every weekend makes me intolerant of all the stoppages in that sport.
End of games are unwatchable, it’s pretty bad in the NBA too. Everyone’s out there working the rules to get an extra play, constant timeouts, commercial breaks, challenges, more commercial breaks. The last 4 minutes of regulation can take 25-30 minutes sometimes
This is a major reason why association football (soccer) seems so stubborn when it comes to altering the way the game clock works in any way. Some point to "tradition", and that's not wrong, but the idea is that soccer *has to be* a fluid sport, without any artificial breaks, except for half-time. Dynamic breaks that happen during the run of play are fine, but the fans AND those who have the votes to change this are both more or less against opening pandora's box to allow any of this to significantly change. If you open it just a bit, who knows where it could lead. So the game clock runs without stopping during each half, and the referee adds stoppage time at the end to make up for all the time lost to substitutions, time wasting, and other stoppages. IMO it's a brilliant compromise. I'd be okay with tweaking it here and there (I liked what they did during the WC), but would definitely not be okay with altering it to invite more ads.
Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians. -Oscar Wilde.
Wasn’t talking about American football, but hey it’s a fun quote.
Edit: it’s not Oscar Wilde’s the correct quote and attribution is below.
“It is clear that one is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans; the other a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.”
Chancellor of Cambridge University, date unknown (c.1890s)
Oscar Wilde did talk about rugby but his quote is “Rugby is a good occasion for keeping thirty bullies far from the centre of the city.”
As a Canadian who lives in Canada and only knew three people who played rugby I’ve heard this quote three times in my life. I am sorry that you’ve heard it often enough that it’s become annoying.
Idk how it is in other countries, in mine rugby players are upper-class douchebags who set homeless people on fire and beat people to death. Gentlemen my ass.
Same as mine lmao. Last big case was a group of 8 rugby players killing a guy in a nightclub. Funnily enough while searching for the exact number of players I came across news from a day ago where a 3 teenagers,also rugby players,left another kid with brain injuries after they jumped on him
Those shorts only look tight on them because their quads and glutes are pretty damn big. Lol
Slap those shorts on a Hank Hill dad bod and they will look like they wearing large flag for shorts.
Half of the game is played off-field. If they got rid of commercials altogether there wouldn't be more gameplay because during commercial breaks, the team is planning and discussing tactics that cannot be broadcast (for obvious reasons). Would still be infinitely better to have shots of the stadium and field instead of commercials though.
Wont become very popular in America as you dont have enough breaks for TV ads and you dont wear protective equipment so you wont be able to afford healthcare.
Rugby has far less injuries than American football. Without protection you know your limits, with protection you can hit harder and will do so - but this mean your brain also bounces around in your skull more.
Also rugby has way more rules about how you are allowed to collide with players. Break those rules and you'll easily get a red card. Rugby still has a lot of injuries, though. I would guess less severe than American football though.
Whenever two of the world’s most popular sports, rugby and even more so cricket, *do* get on a general Reddit sub it leads to the same repetitive ‘Lol this game is so complicated’, ‘But why doesn’t [American football rule] apply?’, ‘Haha look at the rugby players’ bodies because I can actually see them!’ or ‘American here, can someone teach me all the rules in a Reddit comment?’
And then those comments get upvoted to the very top.
I do feel for try of the year, it's a but easier for a team like NZ to look amazing and run in beautiful tries against a team like Namibia. The defensive tackling here was fairly poor.
Yeah, that try of the year felt a bit discounted. Nothing against Namibia or the All Blacks but its easier to do great stuff if you are one of the best teams in the world and the other team is basically the wipping boys of your group.
I dated a kiwi for years and she showed me a bunch of All Blacks games. I have NO IDEA why this sport isn’t bigger in America. It’s fast paced, violent and fun. It should be huge in America!
The reason why it's not more popular is probably because of the New Zealand rugby union tour of North America in 1913. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_New_Zealand_rugby_union_tour_of_North_America > New Zealand took the tour seriously, with a squad led by veteran player Alex McDonald that won all their matches in North America with **large victories, conceding only 6 points in 16 games.** The only test was played against the United States, which included players from Stanford and Berkeley. > As a result, the University of California returned to football in 1915. Basically USA got beaten so hard they decided to stop playing. For an article on it, here: http://en.espn.co.uk/newzealand/rugby/story/204045.html
Wow, one of the hugest rage quits I’ve seen. Even quit the game entirely lol
Damn. The US was tge kid who took their ball home after losing
I've never been more proud to be kiwi
Not enough breaks for commercials. My brother played back in college, it was definitely fun.
That's how I've always described Rugby: American football, but without armour or commercials
There's not enough add breaks for commercialisation.
No commercial breaks. America wouldn't touch this sport because it can't be mercilessly capitalized. NFL is designed for endless commercial breaks so the rich can get richer.
Getting knocked out of the World Cup by Chile won't help the popularity.
That last pass was clean
He took one in the gut for the team simultaneously.
Dude knew he was gonna get taken off his feet and had to act quick, man's the MVP
Closest thing to this in American football is when some skinny ass 6’2” quarterback gets mauled by a 6’6” 325 pound defense tackle as he releases a deep bomb for the 6.
RIP Bryce Young.
All 5'10" of him.
Why don't they do lateral passes more often in the NFL? As i understand it you can pass the line of scrimmage and still do it, but you hardly ever see it done. Anyone know?
Too risky compared to Rugby. In American football, you risk a turnover when you lateral the ball, whereas if you are tackled play stops and you get a chance to reset and run another play, which is advantageous. Defensive scores are rare, so you want to be on offense. In Rugby, play is continuous unless a penalty occurs, so you might be able to get the ball back quickly anyways. In football you mostly only see laterals at the end of a game when a team must score to win, because they have no alternatives and the risk is losing, which you are going to do anyway if you can't score.
The pass was clean, and he did the defender dirty, simultaneously. Very impressive.
Maybe it's the perspective but I looked to almost be a forward pass.
Nah, it kept moving downfield thanks to the passer's own fwd momentum, but it was behind his back to a receiver coming up on his flank.
So a pass can move forward relative to the field if it's backwards relative to the passer?
yes and [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=box08lq9ylg) does a great job explaining why
Great video. Though weirdly long for such a short answer. Lot of the confusion you’re gonna see on here is that Reddit has a ton of Americans, and in American Football whether a pass is forwards or backwards is based entirely on the release and catch points. (Though I believe there’s some exact phrasing in the rules about where exactly those two points are defined). So to borrow a phrase from the video, it’s whether it’s forwards or backwards relative to the field, not the players.
It makes perfect sense though. The lateral pass is not an integral part of American football so forward passes that try to benefit from lateral rules would be unnecessarily hard to judge. Meanwhile in rugby, you could have more lateral passes on a single play than an entire American football team will have in a season. And if we discount end of the game shenanigans, an American football team may never throw a lateral.
Thanks for the video!
[Here you go!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=box08lq9ylg)
As someone who doesn't play or watch rugby, that was still very interesting. Thanks for link.
I think it's the perspective. It looks like it was close to being a forward pass to me.
Noob question, but I assume from your comment that in rugby, you can't pass the ball forward, only backwards?
Or laterally, correct. However, you can kick the ball forward, just not pass with your hands.
Rugby often looks like that because they’re all running forward so fast and hold the ball put in front. It can look forward relative to the players body, but the path when the ball was released is horizontal or back, even if after a step the player appears in front.
And 22 was the guy at the bottom of the pile they just ran away from! How in hell did he get there so quick!
Is there a way to zoom in more?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeSaAOvt7uE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeSaAOvt7uE) Hope this helps
It's a little less impressive when you realize the score is now 69-9. Of course you can style on people in a blowout
Yeah, being that far ahead lets you take risks, however its still amazing physical skill and dexerity by the team and a great finish by TJ.
Here's the broadcast replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2AfslY-0bE
God they still cut to so many angles. Can't I just have standard Telly Cam?
https://youtu.be/UeSaAOvt7uE
The constant angle changes of this are if anything more annoying.
Equally annoying. Both are terrible
That was the “try of the year” highlight edit. This is the broadcast version: https://youtu.be/UeSaAOvt7uE The close up view from the OP is awesome because it highlights the passing, but you need the context of the wide view first, then after you watch the wide view and your like “holy shit was that last pass behind the back?” You can watch the close up and see that it was in fact a perfectly time behind the back pass.
That was way better. I now have a scale of things. Thank you.
Right? It's so cropped it's pointless.
And so slow it removes how impressive it actually is
was gonna say this. slow mo is cool for replays so details can be savored. but this particular thing without speed just ruins the best thing about it
Most modern video players have speed controls anyway, so regular speed should be the default and let the user slow it down if they want to. Slow-mo to look cool (especially when it's interspersed with full-speed) ruins so many videos.
Oh this was sarcastic. I thought we all just wanted a better look at them quads.
Never change, horny Redditors.
And keep changing the speed up and down
That’s some team work right there.
Books have been written about the team culture of the New Zealand All Blacks. Even as an English Rugby fan, I get excited any time I see an All Blacks game – they are so fucking good.
I know nothing of rugby as well and the passes were a delight to watch, cherry-topped by my realization that the final catcher was the very same player (22) that started the chain.
Here's a non cropped version so you can actually see what's going on: [LINK](https://youtu.be/R2AfslY-0bE)
[Here'](https://youtu.be/UeSaAOvt7uE)s a better version without a change of camera each pass
Real mvp
When i see score i feel sorry for other team
They’re playing the All Blacks. I don’t know much about rugby, but I do know the dominance of the All Blacks.
This shit makes me want to start watching rugby
Well the World Cup starts in September, that's the perfect time to try it out!
With a fucking camera angle change right before every pass happens, making it even harder to follow what's going on
Right? Can we get an unedited shot please? I couldn’t find anything better
I wish people would stop posting Tik Toks
Way more impressive. Thanks
THIGHS
Same, but BUTTS
You’re not wrong. I think my rugby shorts might be the most flattering clothing I have.
My ex wife worked at a US bar where occasionally Aus Rules would be on the TV shortly before close. She doesn't like sports but told me one day she was really getting into it. I asked if it was just for the ogling. She denied it. I asked her to name to one rule. Any rule. Even just one of the ways to score. She could not. Fair though, I don't really know how volleyball works, but I'd watch women's volleyball when it was on.
Yes cake everywhere you look!
Whole ass bakery going on, if you ask me
They got my heterosexuality tumbling ngl
"Yeah, buns and thighs."
I am looking respectfully
I'm not gay, butt...
Seriously these boys are thick. Fuck I should have played as a kid, wasted my time with freaking football.
Never too told to give it a bash. When I did rugby our coaches were other kids dad's. All old blokes with beer bellies and bad backs.
i was thinking of skipping leg day today, but these guys changed my mind
Came here this comment
We love short shorts
I want each of them to take turns smothering me with the until I’m unconscious
Lmao got me about to start acting up 👀
BONK
They got some cake ngl
And I can see their faces. This is why I like rugby over American football any day.
[удалено]
We get to learn plenty about the personalities of NFL stars once they end up on the news for beating their wives, firearms offences, dogfighting, manslaughter charges pertaining to a DUI, or taking a knee.
Leg Day is every day.
GOD DAMN, that was intense to watch, of course its the All Blacks
>of course its the All Blacks My exact thought!
I was a winger back in the college days. Tore my ACL in year two and I still have issues with my knee 20 years later. Still the most fun I've played in any sport.
This is just the All Blacks being the All Blacks. 
Awww Dan.
Was at that game! The video ref took a loooong time to check it out, but everyone in the stadium knew that we'd just seen an absolute blinder of a try
There was definitely a couple of passes in there which looked close to being forward on this camera angle - can definitely understand why it took a long time to review.
Would also have been confirming the ball touched grass before the arm hit the touch post
I know nothing of Rugby either, but damn what constitutes a “down?”. One guy was tackled with ball in hand and some other team mate just runs up and takes the ball and starts running again. Edit: I have been sufficiently educated on the subject, thank you for the replies!
Play doesn’t stop after a down in ruby, the ball is passed back to the next player and they continue on, they don’t stop play.
So when does it end? Can the other team just grab the ball out of the downed players hands and just start running in the opposite direction?
When a ball carrier "downs" he is not allowed to get back up with the ball. Neither is the tackler allowed to take it and get back up. An imaginary "gate" is formed shoulder width over the fallen runners position, and the runner is allowed to pass the ball in a backwards direction from that point. The opposing team has the opportunity to take the ball and do this themselves, but only after they have pushed thru the bounds of the imaginary gate. That's why you see the second guy in a black shirt coming over top the first when he goes down. There are also penalties and out of bounds plays but at a high level play is usually a lot more continuous. Edit: really fun rugby fact most outsiders wouldn't know: in order to score a try you can't simply run thru the end zone like American football. You actually have to be in possession of the ball, and physically be able to touch the earth of the goal zone with the ball. There's even a strategy in rugby where 2-3 guys shoulder to shoulder can let someone plow them over only to fail to score a try when they can't reach the earth due to the pile of body's they're stuck on top of
Does this mean the downed ball carrier’s body is like a path to the gate’s entrance? If so, I assume there’s a rule against stepping on them.
That rule is relatively new, back in the day, there was no rule against treading on players in a ruck One NZ player famously had his testicle torn open in a ruck by a set of cleats and continued the match until the team discovered just how bad the injury was
Also had three teeth kicked out in the same game: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/millions-shocked-toughest-rugby-player-23869166
Yes, there is a rule, yes... Joke aside a lot of shoe cleaning and back rubbing with stud shoes occur.
The body basically forms the new offside line. To get back over to the ball you have to cross through the player-gate. Hence the ruck shoving each other pack and forwards over the offside line
When a mistake is made (Eg. dropping ball forward, passing the ball forward), or when the ball is out of bounds. Rugby is super technical, so many mistakes are made. Rugby also goes through different meta's. So in some meta's it's better to keep the game going as long as possible by running and passing, and in some meta's it's better to kick the ball to your opposition in their territory, and put pressure on them so they make mistakes.
Can the other team not grab the ball when the guy is down? I always found that bit confusing. Like in this clip the guy falls and stretches back towards his team mates, but the blue players don’t attempt to grab it? They just sort of hug him from the other direction?
They can, but there are rules to it. You form what's called a ruck, and basically try and get a bunch of guys to wrestle over each other until space is cleared for somebody to grab the ball. Because of onside/offside rules and the fact that the tackled guy wants to turn towards his teammates, it's usually far easier for the teammates to pick up the ball than the opposing team.
to answer this better, we called it going through the gate...basically where the person is down a "ruck" is formed...when that ruck is formed you have to go through the gate. To put it into football terms think of someone bull-rushing and offensive lineman...only in rugby you cant just get a running start and try to level the guys its about pushing them back past the ball and your ruck overtakes there ruck. Once that happens and your team has control of said ruck you have possession and players from your team can control the ball. With that being said you cannot go in from the side and just try to grab the ball and you cannot play the ball from your knees. Sometimes this is a judgement call made by the ref as I have had instances where I believed my team had control and the ref did not believe so causing a 10M penalty. Also alot of times in rugby unless you have a gaggle of guys around contesting rucks can be counter productive, because your using a lot of energy to contest and the more guys in the ruck the less on the "fence" to prepare for the offense to run with the ball. Sorry if this is confusing but trying to explain as best I can as someone who played football for 14 years and rugby for 6 lol.
The easiest way of explaining it is that all your players need to be on your side of the downed player first which takes time for both teams, but that tends to be true for the attacking team anyway (because they’re the one running up the pitch). And secondly you can’t go around the downed player to grab the ball you have to step directly over them. Which does mean very few tackles end in a turnover, but you have to remember that rugby balls are twice the size of footballs so when someone really hits you they’re quite hard to hold on to.
That made the most sense to me, I think. Basically, if the guy running the ball goes down, there's a good chance his team his behind him. Therefore, they could just pick the ball up and keep it going. Where as since a lot of the defenders are chasing him, when the ball carrier goes down, every defender would have to run to the other side of the ball first to be able to pick up the ball. Is that correct?
Also, since the teams know this, often the first attackers to make it to the downed player wont grab the ball, but start pushing any opposing team off him so his team can get the ball safely. Like in this clip when the guy does go down, one defender starts reaching over him to grab the ball until someone runs in and pushes him back.
Yep.
Oh and to answer your second question: When a player is tackled (downed player), he has 1 opportunity to make 1 movement (place the ball, or pass it). After that, the first arriving opposition player may try to take the ball while he is on feet - and he also only has one opportunity to do this, effectively.
So long as they're not offside.
Rugby doesn’t really have the same breaks, fouls and errors can lead to the ball being turned over to the other team and free kicks. But play only stops for more than a few seconds when there’s a penalty an injury or points are scored.
They actively try to keep the game play flowing as much as possible, makes the game more enjoyable for the players and spectators
Have to say I watched all my life, and even played a little, never realised how well rugby flows until I tried to watch American football, the amount of pauses are maddening.
American who played high school rugby, hard agree. I can't handle watching American football unless it's just in the background, I get antsy. I remember even the line-outs move fast in rugby and those involve lifting up other players!
Basically the game stops when the ball goes out (I believe it needs to touch the ground or the carrier needs to put a foot or knee/hand whatever outside), when there is a foul, when a team scores and for half and full time. Edit: The "possession" is not set like in US football. There are no X attempt at gaining Y yards. It's free, like it is in a fumble case. Imagine it's always fumble time, anybody can pick the ball and run to score in the "endzone" except the ball needs to touch the ground for the try/touchdown to be counted.
Pretty much 🤷♂️ I've never understood the constant stoppages in American footie
Rugby is a real time strategy game. American Football is a turn-based strategy game. That's about it. Saying there is never any movement in Gridiron is equivalent to complaining that only 5% of the action of a chess match is actually moving pieces around the board.
Age of Empires vs Civ
More adverts
Yeah pretty much
A man's version of football
Jesus christ, so many fucking idiots arguing which sport is more dangerous.
MY COUNTRY’S CTE IS BETTER THAN YOURS
No idea which sport is more dangerous, but in Rugby we have a history of eating our dead. Top that.
This thread makes me hate sports or maybe just Reddit lmao, quickly devolved into a “Which sport is better argument” and then a USA v Europe argument.
Bro it’s Reddit, trust me. Any big sub that has a post on front page has this same exact argument except with whatever the topic of the post is. Redditors are ridiculously argumentative and always have to be right lol
Play doesn't end when a player is tackled, a 'ruck' can be formed to allow both teams to compete for it. However, if the player passes the ball to someone before it is formed then play continues uninterrupted. Play only ends if someone commits an infringement, if the ball goes out of bounds 'into touch', or someone scores.
I love it. Rugby is so great
[Rugby explained for Americans](https://youtu.be/TeTB9NdA_F8)
That was really helpful, thanks! One thing that didn't get explained is why the players run towards the goals in the try-areas instead of placing it down just anywhere inside the try-area. Is that just a celebration thing?
So the conversion after the try needs to be done on a line drawn across the location the ball is touched down. So imagine a line across the place where the ball touches down perpendicular to the goal posts. The person who kicks the ball can place the ball anywhere on this imaginary line and go back as far as 22 meters (iirc) from the line that marks the touchdown area. So running towards the post is an attempt to make it easier to succeed the conversion coz it is always easier to kick straight than at a very shallow angle. That being said there are some amazing conversions done at these impossible angles Hope this helps
That definitely does. Thank you!
After a try, a conversion is taken, which is basically an attempt to kick the ball through the goal posts for extra points. The kick has to be taken from where the ball was touched down (obviously further back than the try line) so a touch down between the posts gives the kicker the best angle to score.
When a player goes down, both teams can form a “ruck” over the downed player and use their feet to kick the ball out/back to their team, when the ball leaves the ruck, the scrum half picks it up and resumes play. Unless there is a foul, a try or the ball goes out of bounds, the game continues. It is a brutal, exhausting and amazingly fun game.
Urm nothing. The only way the game stops is from a foul, a forward pass, or the ball going out of play. Once a player goes down, they have to give up play to the ball like you saw the other team. If they are fast enough, they could take the ball of them. But as you saw, that did not happen. If they are close to taking the ball, a player on the team that player did take the hit could attempt to tackle the player making a ruck. But the defending player decided to guard instead, which is a bit iffy from the prospective you saw, but from what he saw, it seemed like the best idea.
The All Blacks are always a delight to watch. It doesn’t matter if you know anything about rugby or not.
I'm sorry what happened? I got uhh...distracted...
The sexy beef passed the object to the other sexy beef and scored.
How many half backs (scrum halves for you in the North) did NZ have on the field.
14, and a full back.
It was our full chaos line up of TJ at 10 and Weber at 9. Was a whole lotta fun.
All I could focus on were the glorious man butts
The level of competition in Rugby is fairly strange to people who aren't used to it. In this clip Namibia looks like amateurs, and compared to the All Blacks or Boks we basically are. But we're also good enough to make the World Cup in every instance this century, where we are 0 wins and 22 losses all time. The next World Cup is later this year but it will take a miracle for us to finally get a win lol.
When did Ryan gosling start playing rugby?
Fr, must be nice to be blessed with world class athleticism *and* looks.
Most men could look much more attractive than they do at the moment, if we worked out and fixed our diets. Granted, that guys a tier above lol.
I mean 90% of men could have that body if we try. *eats another slice of pizza*
Rugby is like football, except fun to watch.
Nothing wrong with a bit of football, American football though... 3 hours watching 60 minutes of play.
I thought it was 3 hours watching like 20 actual minutes of play time
There are some articles out there that say a typical NFL game has 11 minutes of game play. The best part is that they are instituting rules to shorten football games (at the collegiate level) because they’re getting to be too long. The reason the games are so long is because they insist on having a commercial break after every few plays. They are shortening the actual gameplay time even more so that they can fit more ads in. As a football-loving American, it’s a disgrace.
I'd love to watch American football as tactics really interest me, but growing up watching shit like this every weekend makes me intolerant of all the stoppages in that sport.
End of games are unwatchable, it’s pretty bad in the NBA too. Everyone’s out there working the rules to get an extra play, constant timeouts, commercial breaks, challenges, more commercial breaks. The last 4 minutes of regulation can take 25-30 minutes sometimes
Typical of america
This is a major reason why association football (soccer) seems so stubborn when it comes to altering the way the game clock works in any way. Some point to "tradition", and that's not wrong, but the idea is that soccer *has to be* a fluid sport, without any artificial breaks, except for half-time. Dynamic breaks that happen during the run of play are fine, but the fans AND those who have the votes to change this are both more or less against opening pandora's box to allow any of this to significantly change. If you open it just a bit, who knows where it could lead. So the game clock runs without stopping during each half, and the referee adds stoppage time at the end to make up for all the time lost to substitutions, time wasting, and other stoppages. IMO it's a brilliant compromise. I'd be okay with tweaking it here and there (I liked what they did during the WC), but would definitely not be okay with altering it to invite more ads.
Commercials have gotten so bad ngl. Especially college
Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians. -Oscar Wilde. Wasn’t talking about American football, but hey it’s a fun quote. Edit: it’s not Oscar Wilde’s the correct quote and attribution is below. “It is clear that one is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans; the other a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.” Chancellor of Cambridge University, date unknown (c.1890s) Oscar Wilde did talk about rugby but his quote is “Rugby is a good occasion for keeping thirty bullies far from the centre of the city.”
As a rugby fan, this is the cringiest quote that keeps getting parroted.
As someone from Ireland and who lived in Dublin for 10 years, I strongly agree. It’s quoted so much and by the poshest people going.
As a Canadian who lives in Canada and only knew three people who played rugby I’ve heard this quote three times in my life. I am sorry that you’ve heard it often enough that it’s become annoying.
Idk how it is in other countries, in mine rugby players are upper-class douchebags who set homeless people on fire and beat people to death. Gentlemen my ass.
Same as mine lmao. Last big case was a group of 8 rugby players killing a guy in a nightclub. Funnily enough while searching for the exact number of players I came across news from a day ago where a 3 teenagers,also rugby players,left another kid with brain injuries after they jumped on him
American football is a Turn-Based Strategy game and rugby is a Real Time Strategy game. Nothing wrong with either game,they’re just different genres
Football is like rugby but you get more opportunities to chug a beer.
Redditors try to not shit on something to justify their enjoyment of something else challenge.
Seriously, I've spent most of my life playing one or the other. They can both be enjoyed without being a snarky ass.
[удалено]
It looks like American Football, except everyone is wearing booty shorts. The perfect sport.
I think they're regular shorts, those dudes are just fucking **built**.
So you’re saying the shorts could be smaller?
League and Aussie Rules already answered that question
Those shorts only look tight on them because their quads and glutes are pretty damn big. Lol Slap those shorts on a Hank Hill dad bod and they will look like they wearing large flag for shorts.
American football is like chess played with humans.
Half of the game is played off-field. If they got rid of commercials altogether there wouldn't be more gameplay because during commercial breaks, the team is planning and discussing tactics that cannot be broadcast (for obvious reasons). Would still be infinitely better to have shots of the stadium and field instead of commercials though.
Wont become very popular in America as you dont have enough breaks for TV ads and you dont wear protective equipment so you wont be able to afford healthcare.
Rugby has far less injuries than American football. Without protection you know your limits, with protection you can hit harder and will do so - but this mean your brain also bounces around in your skull more.
Also rugby has way more rules about how you are allowed to collide with players. Break those rules and you'll easily get a red card. Rugby still has a lot of injuries, though. I would guess less severe than American football though.
Literally every tackle I've seen in American football would be a red card offense in rugby.
wouldnt be reddit without a comment like this
Rugby? On a mainstream subreddit? Must be a blue moon
Whenever two of the world’s most popular sports, rugby and even more so cricket, *do* get on a general Reddit sub it leads to the same repetitive ‘Lol this game is so complicated’, ‘But why doesn’t [American football rule] apply?’, ‘Haha look at the rugby players’ bodies because I can actually see them!’ or ‘American here, can someone teach me all the rules in a Reddit comment?’ And then those comments get upvoted to the very top.
I do feel for try of the year, it's a but easier for a team like NZ to look amazing and run in beautiful tries against a team like Namibia. The defensive tackling here was fairly poor.
Yeah, that try of the year felt a bit discounted. Nothing against Namibia or the All Blacks but its easier to do great stuff if you are one of the best teams in the world and the other team is basically the wipping boys of your group.
Great use of the song.
Don't know anything about Rugby but that looked badass.
Shit I need to go to the gym
[удалено]
What is this song called?
**Song Found!** **Outro** by M83 (02:03; matched: `100%`) **Album**: The Gambler - Music From The Motion Picture. **Released on** 2014-12-15.
Well fuck me. I need to start watching men's rugby. For reasons
New zealand is tough,man
The close up view ruins the whole video.
Poor Namibia.
Rugby looks dope af