Totally Offtopic; please enlighten me!

I just saw a photo of a rugby team in action and I was surprised to see that the players were all much older (not in their early twenties) than the major league football players I see in the US.  Plus, they were all virtually unprotected from impacts and hits, while the teams here are padded from top to bottom and still wind up with terrible injuries.

Why do the UK players play unprotected?  What is it about the game of rugby or soccer (and I know these guys play ROUGH!) or the way it is played that doesn't leave the players suffering from concussions, etc.?  We seldom go an entire season in American football without seeing some poor young player totally incapacitated from a brain concussion, or a neck or back injury.

Whatever it is, I'd really like to learn why.  It breaks my heart to see these young men injured for life when they are so padded and protected, yet Rugby players aren 't padded up and seem to play for years longer than the NFL.

Just curious.

Thanks,

 My brother used to play a high level of rugby - yes plenty of them are older - we term it as a gentlemens sport (goodness knows why when it's so rough) but also a lot of the youngsters just look old because of all the battering lol!

Also there are strict rules on tackling, I believe it has to be below the waist, so tend to get more leg injuries.  Also you can only tackle someone who is holding the ball (I think), which means a lot less occurance of tackling.

Hope that helps
Amy

You're right, it certainly doesn't look very gentlemanly!  Thanks for the reply--that really makes a lot of sense. 

Rugby players stick to very tight rules about how and when they can tackle. And from the little I know about American football, I THINK they can tackle people at any time (is that right?) in rugby, you can only tackle the person holding the ball. So there may be fewer overall tackles.

In the scrum, serious injuries used to be quite frequent but nowadays the referee wathces very closely to make sure the scrum doesn't collapse.

Any infringements of the rules result in sending off the pitch for 10 mins.

I love rugby! But never watch soccer!

Kate

Yes, in American football just about anyone can tackle anyone, while a play is running.  (From the time the teams line up on the line of scrimmage facing one another and then the ball is snapped to the quarterback--the guy that is getting really friendly with the guy right in front of him--once the ball is in motion then everyone tries their best to stop the opposing team from opening or closing a hole or opposing a movement across the line of scrimmage. )

I'm probably not explaining very clearly, sorry!  

Everyone on the team is "protected" with helmets, shoulder, knee, and kidney pads, and mouthpieces to keep their teeth from being knocked out.  The padding just turns a linebacker into a 350# missile, which is going as fast as humanly possible, into another padded player who is running as fast as HE can, which results in some serious neck, head, and back injuries.  There are men in our society today that injured themselves as children in little boys games and still deal with the injuries.  I think it would be a good thing if there were personal penalties for on-the-field injuries and violations, but all that happens when a foul occurs is that the team responsible is penalized a few yards back on the playing field (which just ****** everyone off) and then it all starts again. 

The penalty box is used in Hockey, I know, but I've never been able to stand watching grown men fight on skates, so I really don't know how it's applied!

Thanks for your explanation--it sounds as if it would be an exciting game to watch!

edited for typos

You should try to watch a top game like a New Zealand All Blacks against someone. The NZ ABs are generally considered the top team in the world although somehow they never win the world cup!

Sending a player off for 10 minutes (called sending to the sin bin!) is a very effective punishment. In last weeks Six Nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy) Wales lost because on of their players was sinn binned and while they were a man down, the English team scored massively. So you can imagine just how poprular he was after the match!

It's very much a "man's" game in - in soccer, players are famous for taking dives ( that is hamming up injuries to psych out opponents). In rugby, they just carry on unless they are sent off by the ref for bleeding too much for safety. In the last world cup, an English player broke his finger. He ran to the side, the medics pulled it back into postition and he ran back on and kept on playing! Only a minor injury - but OUCH!.

Great game to watch - all those big men with real muscles (not body building fakes!). Oops, that slipped out. Meant to say, great game to watch, full of skill and strength.

Kate

I'm with you--muscles work for me!!!  Umm, I mean yeah, skill and strength!

Lynn, DH has just pointed something else out to me. He has watched a game of American Football (I haven't) and tells me it goes in spurts! They make a play of some sort and then play stops for a short period and then they start again.

In rugby, there are breaks when they move into new positions for a line up or scrum or whatever but basically the play in a good running game can be fast and furious for the whole 40 mins of each half. So it may be that the sheer power of the tackle is, especially by the end of the game, less. And I don't know about Am Fl but in rugby, there is a very limited number of changes permitted in the players. So they get very tired!!

Kate

Your DH is right--the play is done and then they mill around and regroup (scratch themselves, etc.,) and then line back up on the line of scrimmage.  The game is only supposed to last one hour (60 min) but the wandering around which allows for commercial breaks, etc., makes most games last for 3 HOURS!!! 

I think your rugby guys are in a lot better shape than our NFL guys!  At least, they sure look like they could take out an entire formation all by themselves!

My son watches rugby on BBC America and he says it's really interesting!

Thanks to you both for the kind information!

Just seen that my last post (done in a hurry) was virtually unreadable!! I tried to edit typos but the board wouldn't let me!! So re-posting below so it makes sense!!

edited for typos

You should try to watch a top game like a New Zealand All Blacks against someone. The NZ ABs are generally considered the top team in the world although somehow they never win the world cup!

Sending a player off for 10 minutes (called sending to the sin bin!) is a very effective punishment. In last weeks Six Nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy) Wales lost because on of their players was sinn binned and while they were a man down, the English team scored massively. So you can imagine just how poprular he was after the match!

It's very much a "man's" game in - in soccer, players are famous for taking dives ( that is hamming up injuries to psych out opponents). In rugby, they just carry on unless they are sent off by the ref for bleeding too much for safety. In the last world cup, an English player broke his finger. He ran to the side, the medics pulled it back into postition and he ran back on and kept on playing! Only a minor injury - but OUCH!.

Great game to watch - all those big men with real muscles (not body building fakes!). Oops, that slipped out. Meant to say, great game to watch, full of skill and strength.

Kate