How Popular is Rugby World-wide?

[Macbeth]

After watching the Superbowl yesterday, I got to wondering: how big is rugby in the world beyond the US? I know we have some posters from New Zealend (sp?) here, home of the world famous All Blacks, and many other international posters, so I would like to know how the popularity of rugby stacks up with, say the popularity of American Football in the US? I play on a small Collegiate team here in the U.S. (New Mexico Tech Pygmies, so named because we're smaller then all the other teams), and we have a grand total of two other collegiate teams, one of which is from a school easily twice, probably even three or four times, of NMT. There are also 4-5 clubs that we play against. From what I understand Rugby is much more popular in the world at large (at least the world cup gives me that idea), but how popular is it?

 

[Hypersmurf]

How big is rugby in the world beyond the US?

That's the one with the pointy ball, right?

-Hyp.
Proud to be a Kiwi... but really couldn't care less about Rugby.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Here in Columbia, South Carolina (and the surrounding area) there is a league of six teams (at least the last time I checked), nothing pro but impressive when you think about it.

 

[Capellan]

First, it must be mentioned that there are two forms of Rugby

Rugby Union (which had its World Cup recently) is a popular sport (but not necessarily the most popular sport) in:

Ireland
Scotland
England
Wales
France
Italy
Argentina
Samoa
South Africa
Namibia
Australia (Queensland and New South Wales, anyway)
New Zealand

Possibly Canada and Uruguary could be claimed as well, but that is probably pushing the definition of 'popular' a long way.

Rugby League (which despite the similarity in name is a very different game) is pretty much only popular in:

Australia (Queensland and New South Wales - there's only one major professional team outside that area)
New Zealand (which has only one major professional side)
England

All three codes (Union, League and NFL) have very limited distribution of popularity compared to soccer, which has the only genuinely global World Cup.

 

[Dirigible]

Proud to be a Kiwi... but really couldn't care less about Rugby.

E tu, Hyp? I thought I was the only one! That vile Ozzie Derulbaskul even had the temerity to tease me about it!

- - -

I know we have some posters from New Zealend (sp?) here, home of the world famous All Blacks, and many other international posters, so I would like to know how the popularity of rugby stacks up with, say the popularity of American Football in the US?

Well, Macbeth, the thing about Rugby as opposed to Amurikan (sp?) Football: they ain't the same game.

Count the number of peices of armour. Do Amurikan (sp?) Footballers ruck? Do they hell!

 

[Macbeth]

Well, Macbeth, the thing about Rugby as opposed to Amurikan (sp?) Football: they ain't the same game.

Count the number of peices of armour. Do Amurikan (sp?) Footballers ruck? Do they hell!

You got that right. Even though I play Back, and so i'm not usually involved in all that stuff, You've got to admire a good ruck, maul, or scrum. Especially with the lack of pads compared to Amurikan football.

 

[hong]

E tu, Hyp? I thought I was the only one! That vile Ozzie Derulbaskul even had the temerity to tease me about it!

The cad. I certainly wouldn't tease you abou tit.










I'd leave that to the bloomin' poms. Frackin' Jonny.

 

[La Bete]

to paraphrase (badly) another poster with whom you may be familiar...


Rugby (union) is the only true game.

All others are pale imitations of the real thing.

 

[Pigeon]

Rugby league was invented in a hotel about 4 miles away from my house. Now isn't that interesting. League is generaly more popular in the north of England, and Union in the south.

Rugby's a lot more popular in England since we won the world cup. However it will never compair to the popularity of soccer I doubt the man on the street would be able to name more than 2 or three rugby players (I can only do two - Johnny Wilkinson and Will Carling), whereas everybody can reel off a fair few footie players

 

[DMScott]

Possibly Canada and Uruguary could be claimed as well, but that is probably pushing the definition of 'popular' a long way.

For Ontario (in Canada), it's a popular game in high schools and some universities, but so far as I'm aware there's no professional or semi-professional teams. I actually think it might be increasing in popularity at the school level - both insurance and equipment costs are a lot lower than football, which makes it more attractive to cash-strapped schools.

If anybody's curious, a decent central website for non-scholastic rugby in Ontario is:

http://www.rugbyontario.com/