Get this guy an offer

#27
#27
SteelerVol said:
LMFAO

Every player on a rugby team has to understand how to pass, kick and advance the ball strategically, has to have the conditioning to play two 40 minute halves with almost no stoppage of play or substitutions. All the while sprinting, tackling and scrumming and to do it well on the professional level takes an athlete with an impressive I.Q.. Hell, there are guys playing in the NFL that couldn't pass a 6th grade English class and the ones that can couldn't run 5 plays in a row without a 45 second break much less a 40 minute half. An average RB from the NFL would never see the field for a European League rugby squad for two reasons. The game changing mistakes they'd make by not having the experience needed that only years of play could provide and the lack of conditioning that would make a Navy Seal ring the bell during Hell week. Football gives you a playbook. They draw you pictures on what to do every play. LoL It's obvious that to switch sports will be hard to impossible either way on the professional level but there isn't a handful of NFL players that could match up with the combination of physical athleticism, intelligence and mental stamina that the elite rugby player has to possess.
Not even close.
This kid could learn to play football in a year.
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I won't dispute the intelligence factor and the conditioning but I was talking about football specific skills. The quote below is from an SI article about a rugby star that the Colts were trying to turn into a linebacker. His combine testing was incredible but his football skill was severely lacking. After a year of training he barely made it into two pre-season games before injuring himself.

INDIANAPOLIS — On his second day in America, in late July, the 23-year old NFL hopeful showed up to Colts training camp wearing what looked like soccer cleats—yellow with orange highlights and a flap over the laces. Coaches and scouts didn’t know what to do with him; he’d never swatted a blocking pad or assumed a three-point stance. He could hardly catch a football, and he couldn’t throw one without eliciting snickers or winces.

“You couldn’t even bear to watch,” general manager Ryan Grigson recalls.
 
#28
#28
Not sure why anyone is comparing the difficulty of someone trying a new sport at the highest level with a 15 year old who would start at the high school level. This whole discussion is extremely hypothetical anyway, but let's compare apples to apples.
 
#29
#29
WebbCobb said:
Not sure why anyone is comparing the difficulty of someone trying a new sport at the highest level with a 15 year old who would start at the high school level. This whole discussion is extremely hypothetical anyway, but let's compare apples to apples.
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Good point if he was starting at the high school level. The OP suggested he be offered a scholly which suggests he would be starting at the collegiate level in the best conference. Unless someone is gonna pay for him to come too America and pay high school football. Then he's a former rugby player.
 
#30
#30
tri_vol said:
I won't dispute the intelligence factor and the conditioning but I was talking about football specific skills. The quote below is from an SI article about a rugby star that the Colts were trying to turn into a linebacker. His combine testing was incredible but his football skill was severely lacking. After a year of training he barely made it into two pre-season games before injuring himself.

INDIANAPOLIS — On his second day in America, in late July, the 23-year old NFL hopeful showed up to Colts training camp wearing what looked like soccer cleats—yellow with orange highlights and a flap over the laces. Coaches and scouts didn’t know what to do with him; he’d never swatted a blocking pad or assumed a three-point stance. He could hardly catch a football, and he couldn’t throw one without eliciting snickers or winces.

“You couldn’t even bear to watch,” general manager Ryan Grigson recalls.
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Would be the same experience if it were the other way around.
 
#33
#33
VOLINVONORE said:
If they think its funny, they have never seen a rugby game, much less played the game.
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They are just jealous because you have so much experience with NFL and Rugby professionals in Vonore. Enough to where you and the person that wrote that condescending drivel are experienced enough to make generalizations about people in two sports. Which in reality you undoubtedly have minimal exposure to rugby pros, much less both sets of athletes.
 
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#34
#34
defaultuser said:
they are just jealous because you have so much experience with nfl and rugby professionals in vonore. Enough to where you and the person that wrote that condescending drivel are experienced enough to make generalizations about people in two sports. Which in reality you undoubtedly have minimal exposure to rugby pros, much less both sets of athletes.
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burn!!!
 
#35
#35
Defaultuser said:
They are just jealous because you have so much experience with NFL and Rugby professionals in Vonore. Enough to where you and the person that wrote that condescending drivel are experienced enough to make generalizations about people in two sports. Which in reality you undoubtedly have minimal exposure to rugby pros, much less both sets of athletes.
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I have quite a bit of experience with both. Here's another generalization... Samoans make great rugby players which in part is why I could see Troy Polamalu being one Hell of a scrum half.
 
#36
#36
white65 said:
It's just like soccer. If America's second or even third favorite sport was soccer or rugby then we would be the best in the world.
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And like soccer with almost no time-outs it doesn't leave room for those big buck advertising dollars and commercialism. One of the reasons we're left watching the NBA after football season is over.
 
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