To think that rugby players really show footballers up for the wimps that they are?

[HangingBasketCase]

Just saw on the news that a Welsh rugby player was knocked out cold during their game with England last night, despite most likely being concussed he got up and carried on. Earlier in the game another player broke his nose, was strapped up and just carried on. Meanwhile footballers roll around on the pitch in mock agony when they break a sodding finger nail!

I'm a life long football fan, but I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with the game if I'm honest. The vile insults hurled at each other by fans, the over dramatic displays of "agony" because the played want a penalty thrown in their way. It's pathetic.

Why isn't rugby more popular than football?

It's a small world (when you live in South Wales), isn't it Tywy!

Gutted that I never got treated by/signed off expenses for JPR - bloody love than man!

My only Welsh sporting claim to fame is that John Charles (Welsh international football player) lived down our road and I punched one of his sons for stealing a toy off me (I was 5 at the time).

• that, not than

Rugby is not a 'contact' sport it is an 'evasion' sport.

No, it is contact. Whilst the one player with the ball might be trying to evade, the other team are trying to bring him down.

In my house
1- Gaelic Football
2- Hurling
3- Rugby

Soccer doesn't even get a look in.

I'm a rugby fan, but I've always been under the impression that actually footballers suffer more horrific injuries (think leg bone sticking out.) Although I suppose rugby balances this out with the occasional death/broken neck.

On the subject of toughness, I remember many years ago someone, might have been Martin Johnson, trotting to the edge of the field with a deep cut a few inches long, in his cheek. In a few seconds someone wiped the blood off and hit the side of his face five or six times with some sort of staple gun to sow his cheek back together, then he ran back on to the field. I think he was out of play for less than a minute.

sew

I teach junior elite players in both sports.

Rugby - higher incidence of lesser injuries, top to toe bruising, facial fractures, dislocation of thumbs and fingers. Lots of ACL and other knee/groin injuries which can mean a season off.

Football - lower incidence of such bruising, fracture and dislocation injuries. Higher rate of full/displaced fractures.

Netball - quite like rugby for dislocation, ACL and knee and ankle injuries.

Equitation - an equal mix of all of the above and more deaths per year than all combined.

All of them train too hard at times, so they all face exhaustion and the illnesses that brings. Not to mention the errors of judgement and injuries that can cause.

It is too easy to say one is 'harder' than the other. I used to dislike the footballers for their attitude, but over the last 5 years this situation has reversed... the elite rugby boys are becoming total prima donnas and the football boys are behaving in a most gentlemanly manner.

You could say I don't see them all... but I work with a couple of hundred of each, 16 - 19 year olds, from recreational to junior nationals, so I think I have a good idea of the recent changes.

I have seen plenty of rugby players have injuries which lead to bones sticking out. Chev walkers (league HKR v Leeds) a few years back sticks in the mind.

Football is 90 minutes of boys pretending to be hurt and rugby is 80 minutes of men pretending they are not.

shakey - that does just about sum it up.

We ran a debate about football and the flouncing. The vast majority of the boys thought that playing for the ref, diving and flouting the rules was an accepted part of the game... seeing if you/your team could get away with it, was part of the game/fun.

To be fair, this is what football was invented for - mass catharsis for spectators! Sadly, it is also the main reason for spectator violence.

In rugby the catharsis happens on the pitch - big hits, the stronger man wins, the winner is obvious. Football - the catharsis has to happen off pitch, supporters replaying the 'unfair' results, no violence allowed on the pitch.

Sorry that is a bit trite, but it take about 20 hours of lectures to explain it properly

Testosterone fuelled half wits,- mentioned up thread. What an absoloutely perfect description of football and football fans.

I wouldn't have fancied breaking my leg the way Gordan Murphy did before the RWC quite a few years ago...

Rugby is a proper game. Fans and players alike are markedly more civilised than your average football fan.
They can usually string a coherent sentence together without too much difficulty as well.

Rugby is a proper game

And football isn't? .

Yes you can argue that rugby fans are perhaps less hostile than football fans at a game and could rub along with the opposing fans in a way that would never happen at a football match.

Testosterone fuelled half wits What an absoloutely perfect description of football and football fans

Not all fans, thanks.

I am rugby fan but there are plenty of players and fans who certainly aren't civilised

Basically football is more popular because it's easier and it's a simple game. Anyone can play, any time they want to. All you need is a ball.

Rugby is much more complex, it needs space/grass and other players.

You can practice football alone against a wall.

What I really don't understand is the fuss about football and footballers. Why the great build-up about the world cup etc when we all know that we're not gong to make the final because we're just not good enough.

The fuss is because football is the most popular sport in this country and plenty of other countries too..

No we're not going to make the WC final because we aren't good enough as a team of 11 English players playing for England.

It certainly is Fight!
Remember Elgan Rees? He taught me at Dwr-y-Felin school in Neath

I think it's such a joke that it is supposedly the national sport, yet we are completly crap at it

Have you guys heard this old saying, still true today...
"Soccer is a game for gentlemen, played by ruffians. Rugby is a game for ruffians, played by gentlemen"

*or words of that ilk anyway.

In JPR news, I went to school with his daughters. Lovely girls they were, and obviously brilliant at sport. He was apparently a bit of a shit though - "interesting bedside manner" about covers it!

I think, much as I love rugby, that it's very easy to go overboard on the "game of thugs played by gentlemen" thing. There is an awful lot that goes on in the scrum that we don't see, and some players and some countries are adept at getting away with it. The main things which compare very favourably compared to football is the behaviour of the players towards to ref, the lack of playacting, and the behaviour of the fans. Usually anyway. I'm getting more and more embarrassed by the attitude of some of the Welsh towards visiting teams - you don't boo national anthems. You just don't!

Re George North-gate, he should have been taken off and stayed off, no questions. The more you look at that second incident, the worse it looks. Would he have gone down like quite such a sack of spuds if he hadn't been kicked in the face earlier in the game? You don't mess around with a young man's health like that, even if it is the Six Nations, and even if there isn't a decent replacement for him on the bench.

what a fecking stupid thread, you cannot generalise about all footballers or football fans as you can't rugby fans and players.

Some horrible sexist, classist and just generally nasty comments on this thread.
They're sports, some enjoy them, others don't. No need to try and prove one over the other by putting supporters and players down or lumping them into one group. Just get on with what you enjoy, you don't need to feel superior to others to do that.

Better singing at the rugby too