American Football Versus Rugby

Rugby is definitely the tougher of the two. Look at football. After almost every play, either a new offense or a new defense is subbed in. Then you got kickers on the side lines who just have to warm their legs for that one kick through the uprights from directly in front of it. Granted there are times when a player on the field must kick it several yards but he probably wasn't in there for the whole game at any rate. A rugby team has 15 people playing the whole game who most likely will not be subbed out at all unless they receive a crippling injury. The fly half is like the quarterback, calls for the ball to pass it out, runs it down, rucks, mauls, everything, and then when they finally make a try (like a touch down but more difficult) then they fly half kicks the ball through the uprights, and not necessarily from the middle. Wherever, the try is made, you take the ball directly out from there to the 22 yard line and kick it in. It could be in a far corner with the kicker kicking at an oblique angle to the uprights. Sure we have an "offense" and a "defense" but every player on the field has to be able to do the jobs of every other player with exceptions to specifics of scrum work. As far as tougher, in my college games this past semester we broke an average of 1-2 necks of opponents per game, in rugby you pay an insurance fee and sign a waiver so that no one can sue you if you kill someone on the field. In rucking and tackling you are allowed and even encouraged to kick the opponents in the face or ribs, "raking" is a term given to raking your metal cleats across the body, usually ribs of the opponent who is on the ground, like a dog would use its paws to dig a hole in the ground, there's more, but I got to finish a job right now, so I'll continue later.

Rugby HAS to be the more brutal of the two. in American Football the players have all that padding to protect them when they tackle each other. Rugby players are like soccer players. They wear no padding so their exposure to injury is greater.