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Football or Rugby: Whose Players are Tougher?



What's tougher: Rugby or American football?

Super Bowl Sunday is coming up, and I’ve been asking local pubs here on the South Island of New Zealand if one might be able to catch the world’s biggest game on television.

But the national sport of New Zealand is rugby, and the Super Bowl is not an event that many locals make bowls of guacamole and invite friends over for. It sounds like football fans in Kiwi land could be hard-pressed to find venues showing the match. In the seaside town of Kaikoura, one bartender told me he didn’t plan on airing the game and said I’d probably be the only person in town looking to watch the Super Bowl. The bar manager at Strawberry Tree, a worn and salty old watering hole on Kaikoura’s main and only drag, said that American football is too slow-paced to watch on TV.

“Rugby is 80 minutes nonstop,” said Stephen Horton, who also plays lock and open-side on Kaikoura’s regional team. “And in football, you have two lines of players that switch at every play, right?”

Right—defense and offense. So, what are you saying, I asked Stephen—that football players are padded, coddled softies? Do you think they’re less durable than rugby players?

“Oh, yeah!” he laughed. “Those guys wouldn’t last 80 minutes in a rugby match!”

Andrew and I raised our beers to that, noting to Stephen that the big-bellied beasts called linemen who may, by some stroke of chance, find the ball in their hands and run it in for an 80-yard touchdown can require oxygen masks in order to recover. This got Stephen and another Kiwi at the bar laughing—and certainly didn’t win toughness points for American footballers.

And so our conversation quickly took the form of one of the endless topics in sports talk: Are rugby players as tough as football players? Consider this quote I found recently on an online discussion: “NFL players are bigger, stonger (sic), faster. Almost all of them have college educations. The average NFL player could pick up the average Super 14 player, turn him upside down, and shake him like a piggy bank.”

But Stephen, like many New Zealanders, feels otherwise. “I definitely think rugby is harder,” he said, “but football looks more fun. You wear all that padding and can hit each other as hard as you want. You get hurt in rugby. I’ve had three broken collar bones and been knocked out three times.”

Rugby players are trained gentlemen, too. In New Zealand, they start playing at as young as four years of age, and even in adult leagues, swearing is forbidden during practice and “joking around,” Stephen explained, is curtailed by the coaches. Nor do players perform sometimes classless celebrations after scores or victories, as we see in the NFL.

Later in the week, in Blenheim, I stopped at the Moa Brewing Company for a beer—and to egg on more conversation. Here I met Michael Miller, an American living in New Zealand and working with the brewery. In eight months here Michael has picked up on the subtleties of rugby that American football lacks. “I don’t mean to be derogatory toward anyone, but rugby is more intellectual,” he said, explaining that, since they lack protective gear, the players must combat each other with exceptional technique. He likens the sport to “guerrilla warfare,” whereas the face-off-and-charge approach of the NFL is more “like Civil War” battle style. “Rugby can also be quite brutal,” Michael said, “but it’s also more beautiful and elegant.” He noted that rugby players must be skilled in tackling, running and handling the ball—all aspects of the game—whereas football players are specialized to certain techniques, making them less rounded as tactical athletes.

Having seen both games up close, Michael also feels that American football, much more than rugby, “has been evolved for commercialization and television.” Which explains the three-hour games, endless breaks and timeouts and the huge advertising campaigns that climax on Super Bowl day.


This T-shirt, spotted in a Kaikoura gift shop, reflects a common Kiwi impression of American footballers: They're wimps.
And I asked that pivotal question: Of rugby players and NFL footballer, who’s tougher?

“It would have to be the rugby guys,” he said. “You have to run nonstop. You can’t be a huge tuna-fish linebacker and play rugby.”

Back in Kaikoura, I asked Stephen if he’d be watching the Super Bowl, but no: He’d rather be on the local pitch playing some rugby or diving for paua or lobster off the beach. And me? If my hometown 49ers had won their way into the battle, I’d be hunting for a television in Christchurch—but I think I’ll go fly fishing.

smh

^Indeed.

This article is almost 2 years old.

Lol

interdasting

Do you think rugby players could play like they play in an 80 minute
Match like it says.

Carrying an extra 50 pounds of pads?

Doubt it.

Also.

No one watches rugby outside of you fucking wierdo European fags.

What mean by that is...no one where it matters (america) cares about rugby.

pads don't weigh anywhere near 50 pounds

its more of an awkward thing than a weight thing

Lol tbh I was like I dont think pads weigh that much.

This question is stupid.

To me...it seems like either or can play each others sport with the right
Preparation.

I do think football players poses more skill and athleticism.

Rugby seems to be just smashing into each other.

nfl has 300 pound dudes running 4.5's

Lol rugby

Read title only: lol nah

Kiwi writes article article glorifying Rugby.

pretty dumb thread.

you are an idiot, he even mentions rugby is the sport of new zealand in the first couple of lines.. unless you think new zealand is in europe.

Who cares...honestly?

The article is 2 years old...who the fuck cares...I know new Zealand is an island and not
Part of Europe....did the person whp posted this awful thread claim hes from new Zealand.

Nah...hes prolly European....plz stfu.

just saying.. you sound so thick, narrow minded and ignorant when you say things like that.

Itt america vs the uk


Itt....no1 gives a fuck.

We have already concluded that;

- America think we are faggots for playing rugby
- we think America are faggots for playing hand egg

New subject matter pls.

that was the point...rugby is horrible.

who wants to see huddled men crouched together and moving in unison?

they literally make the outline of an asshole...the asshole being the space between each players head...

then some dick goes diving in to find the ball..

pretty gay man.

As opposed to reaching into a mans rectum for a ball to throw? ^

this is my last post on this topic, its been done to death.

i've already said how stupid this thread is. i'm talking about your ignorance.. not rugby.

i play football and don't like rugby at all.

lol word im fine with my ignorance to this....

but yeah this is old.

Football is literally years ahead of rugby. It's a more evolved (better) version of soccer and rugby
facts.
football wins

Its a different game you fcking peasant. Thats like saying tennis is a more evolved version of baseball. Stfu.

no it isn't
now you're just being ignorant. americans borrowed those ideas and made the greatest sport there is

yea i've come to hate both sides of "fan" in this argument honestly.

its different. there are different toughnesses involved in all sports. but for the sake of MURICA

here is sav rocca who was an aussie footballer (think thats rugbyish?) in one of his first games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTahpfuUVJg

skip to 1 minute in

ignore the commentators. it is a cheap shot, but he has pads on and he is moving. he is allowed to tackle the ball carrier, so he is allowed to be blocked/decleated

but word props to ROCCA for getting up like AINT NOTHIN

but word thats a 6 foot 5 265 pound austrailian vs. a 6 ft 0 240 pound black american from slave lineage prolly

MURICA



PS

RAVENSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Lol

Pls die

K thnx

thats what i thought :)

At uh oh, cool se he bumped someone who wasnt watching? Lol k

Pls refer to my last post.

yo sav rocca has my respect tho he's a G

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYyOvoolACo

got around two blockers and stopped dude in his tracks. not a big hit, but most punters/kickers are pussies in american football and shy away from tackling

lol im not comparing the two sports, im just talking NFL now in here, and about a dude who crossed over.

but you are allowed to hit a guy who isnt paying attention. he was running, watching the guy who had the ball. if the guy who had the ball, broke free, he would be expected to tackle him. so the guy destroying him, is actually legal, its called a block in american football. he got taken out of the play, so he couldnt make the tackle, if the guy with the ball had made it to him.

So you can bump anyone that is looking at the ball carrier even if he is 20 yards away? Lmao thats some lame shit. So basically the ball carrier picks a hole to run through he himself doesnt need much skill because his teammates bumped the fuck out of everyone looking at him sideways. Thats gayer than aids my g. Tere should be a proximity rule, can bump nigs within 10 yards of ball carrier not half a field away.

MURICA

pretty much. you can get called for roughing tho. like unnecesary roughness. which that guy couldve been flagged for.

the guy who was hit, was looking at the ball carrier. he was running/jogging to be in position to make a tackle on the ball carrier, IF the ball carrier doesnt get tackled before getting to him.

but yea thats american football. everyone can get hit. the ball carrier looks for holes created by his guys blocking. defenders try to evade blocks, and tackle the ball carrier. but there are infinite strategies within all of that

some defenders, like MIDDLE LINEBACKERS, are taught to blow up the block. so instead of running around a guy, he is coached to smash into the blocker, to clog up that running lane, and the greats blow up blocks, and then shed them to make the plays

but yea american football is weird

if i wasnt raised on it i probably wouldnt give a fuck

I like the video games but ill be fucked if im gonna sit down for hours on end to watch a real one.

lol football is televised there?

Only the superbowl

rugby is sooo gay....

interesting
there's zero televised rugby games here

Hand Egg troll successful. I knew you couldn't help yourselves.

Sig check.



Sup, fellas.