Americans, what do you think about rugby?

I’ve been playing on university or men’s clubs for about 12 years at the amateur level in a couple different places.

I love the sport for a number of reasons, but I’ll admit that it can be tough to understand the game if you’ve never played it or forced yourself to learn. There are few TV outlets to pick the game up passively by watching, and most people have no opportunity to play unless they go to college or live in a city with a men’s club. American rugby also suffers from an image problem, because it is still perceived by many to be nothing more than a sport for fat drunken idiots, which is hardly true anymore. My local team has everything from doctors, lawyers, engineers, construction workers, plant technicians, teachers, personal trainers, you name it. We play for fun as amateurs, but we take the hobby seriously and try to stay in decent shape, and the drunken antics are usually only carried out by our younger single guys after the games. But they’re gonna do that any given Saturday.

In our ranks also include the insufferable idiots who think they’re tougher than American football players because they don’t wear pads. I’ve played both sports, they’re both equally grueling in their own ways. You can’t grow your own sport by shitting on America’s sport. I hate those people and I condemn these opinions.

The sport is growing at an exponential rate though. Great strides are being made to improve our rugby status on the international level. Recently we’ve moved up to # 12 in international rankings, the highest in modern history. We’re starting to see more youth programs, high school programs, new men’s clubs formed, college rugby scholarships, touch and flag leagues, 7s tournaments, and various national team opportunities. A startup professional league began in 2018 with one successful season under it’s belt and so far seems to be operating better than previous attempts.

In 10-20 years I predict it will be about where American soccer is today.

/r/AskAnAmerican Thread