Rugby Union - worlds worst sport?

no, its soccerball  zzzzzz

Old rugby union was the worst sport, back when it was a winter game, played on ploughed fields by unfit amateurs apparently unable, even at international level, though perhaps owing to the freezing, muddy conditions, to catch the ball or run more than a few yards.

Cruddy sport - try to avoid it...Rugby League is ok.

a weight limit wouldn't hurt.

Much better these days but they change the rules so often I still can't understand it properly, particularly why the ref is always blowing up and giving penalties.
Very dangerous now as the players are so big strong and fast.
I wonder if it's anything to do with drugs like in American Football?

Unusually perspicacious from the bed-wetter ; yes it one of the world’s worst sports if only for the fake “chumminess” perfected by the narcissistic practitioners.

Smell the faecal slime , push , retract , stand up , go down again , another sniff , push , retract and repeat ad nauseam until the dainty-footed prima donna blows his whistle ; kick the ball 4 miles in the air , run forwards 10 yards , retrieve ball , kick ball up in the air for 3 miles , run forward 11 yards , offside , lose ball ; repeat for 80 minutes.  And these troglodytes are paid for this tripe.

Can't stand all the breaks...ref gives scrum, two minutes to bind..scrum collapses...repeat...and repeat again...3 or 4 minutes to take a penalty...and as for the knock on rule, so what if you drop the ball forward, just get on with it

Reminds me of the time I watched an American football game in London. 20 minutes of action stretched over 4 hours. All the stoppages and breaks mentioned by @topshot but they stop the clock as well. In America, these gaps are presumably filled by cheerleaders and marching bands, or more adverts.

They stop the clock in rugby to Ram...doesn't quiet go to 4 hours though...just feels like it

Formula 1 end of fred

whosaidwhat
28 Feb 15 19:42

Unusually perspicacious from the bed-wetter ; yes it one of the world’s worst sports if only for the fake “chumminess” perfected by the narcissistic practitioners.

Smell the faecal slime , push , retract , stand up , go down again , another sniff , push , retract and repeat ad nauseam until the dainty-footed prima donna blows his whistle ; kick the ball 4 miles in the air , run forwards 10 yards , retrieve ball , kick ball up in the air for 3 miles , run forward 11 yards , offside , lose ball ; repeat for 80 minutes.  And these troglodytes are paid for this tripe.

another vote for F1 here - the one sport none of the viewers can participate in themselves at amateur level

At a football game , I usually have an idea what a foul is given for.

How on earth you watch Union live from some distance as 15 blokes maul on the floor and have a clue why the ref is giving a penalty to one side , without television coverage & commentary I have no idea ...

When it is on tv why so many clearly stupid players offend at the ruck in front of their own posts ,giving a ludicrous 60% of a try for a converted penalty defies belief ......but players do it over and over again.

The following are all way worse than rugby...Basketball, Baseball, Wrestling of any sort, MMA.

you forgot cricket

squash for me, worst game/sport ive ever seen yawnnnnnnnnnn

Looking at the stats for todays 6 nations decider ......it was lots of kicking goals after players decided fouling within kicking range was a good idea .....

And thousands upon thousands pay to watch this .....bizarre

[img]http://images.onesite.com/community.betfair.com/user/gin/f8fbde0687f59a...

anyone care to briefly explain the rugger offside law.

A fred without curling i presume? The singlemost stoopid farkin 'sport' it's ever been my chagrin to watch..

Major problem with the scoring system.

Not appropriate for a team sport where the principal objective is to score tries, to be decided on the points arising from a individuals kicking the ball over the posts.

Only sport I can think of where it is a legitimate ploy to kick the ball out of play at every opportunity

I absolutely love rugby union, it has been my sport since I was a kid playing at school and afterwards later in life. Having said that a lot of what the sport has become really winds me up as it's not the game now that I knew. Taking so long to take a penalty kick at goal with the clock ticking away, scrum halves feeding to the second row in scrums making a hooker like I was incapable of getting a strike against the head which was my forte.
Horse racing aside, it's still my favourite sport having said that. I do like league as well but not in the same way as Union.

personally i think its the best sport

Ireland winning against England on Sunday was my sporting highlight of the year thus far.

I think Slippy means until Thursday when the world biathlon champs start.

Hard to separate Cricket, Rugby League and American Football.
All equally boring.

Never got into Cricket   ,so i'd probably vote that if i had to pick one .

I can't class Formula 1 etc as a sport  -

Rugby Union is a nightmare. Kick the ball back and forward to each other and whoever concedes the least penalties WINS, penalties incidentally which even the ref doesn`t know why they have been given. Whereas Rugby League is brilliant.

O'Slips is correct in what he says, but the singlemost reason Union might be lost to the masses is refereeing. Without question they are utter fukwits who are ruining the game (for the uninitiated only) It's going the same way as football, they are more interested if their hair is straight and if the camera is on them for 79 of the 80 minutes. They blow for farting, there's no rucking anymore. In fact ye will be lucky to see any groundwork. And the worst ref is Engerlish.

Don't they make significant changes to the rules every couple of seasons?  Much of the time I hear commentators moaning about Northern v Southern Hemisphere interpretations, or the latest change in the rules
which (as I understand it) is countered by teams making a different approach to the game thereby creating a  problem worse than the one that caused the rule change in the first place.

.... offside , kick ball to touch , line-out , not straight , scrum , smell ...., push,  retract , stand up , move to where pitch isn’t porridge , down , sniff , push , pull back , stand up , listen to some gobbledegook from prima donna with whistle ,  down , sniff , push , retract , stand up , move to where pitch isn’t porridge , down , sniff , push , retract , stand up , listen to some gobbledegook from prima donna with whistle , down , sniff , push , retract , prima donna gives penalty ; kick ball to touch ; line-out , not straight , scrum , smell .... , push , retract , stand up .....

You get the drift.

slippyblue

Ireland winning against England on Sunday was my sporting highlight of the year thus far.


Anybody winning against England is a sporting highlight.

Yes Muntz, there's been changes, but as usual it's the way they are interpreted. Ye is just giving more power to the coiffered head of some tart. No point in having linesman anymore, 90% are scared to death of upsetting 'he who is in control' Forward passes are missed regularily, not throwing straight at the lineout is now the 'feeding' of the game. The advantage rule is 500% worse than the offside rule in footy. No consistency in most things. I love the game, but refs are driving me utter bonkers..

I enjoy watching rugby union at international level only, 6 nations, all blacks, wallabies and springboks

g2d the advantage Rule puts me off watching the game now. They let it go for minutes then bring it back.

Or 5 yards then a whisper of "Advantage over" MM..

so if they advance the ball 5yds+ it can`t come back?

Some refs see any advantage as an 'advantage' and some refs (as you say) let it go for yonks...

Rugby League = the greatest game of all

akabula doesn't appear to like mens sports

there is a difference in advantage when a penalty is awarded when more time is allowed than when a scrum is awarded.

Rugby Union easily the most exciting and therefore entertaining sport for me.

90% of 6 nations spectators have NEVER been to a club match.

1 in 10 have though.

Petrus Romanus     01 Mar 15 17:00 
The following are all way worse than rugby...Basketball, Baseball, Wrestling of any sort, MMA.

Nothing is 'way' worse than Rugby Union, though I don't mind League. Basketball is sh!te, I'll grant you, and the wrestling most of us are familiar with isn't even a sport. I'm no fan of MMA either but they at least deserve respect. But Baseball? If I was restricted to watching one sport for the rest of my life, it would be baseball, without question.

Mar 5, 2015 -- 8:01AM, sofiakenny wrote:

90% of 6 nations spectators have NEVER been to a club match.

I can't agree with that 90 % statistic sofiakenny, everyone I know that goes to watch the 6 nations are regular supporters of either Harlequins, London Irish or Wasps without exception.

It used to be difficult to get tickets for international matches unless you supported a club ...
as a large proportion were distributed thru the clubs

^^ this ^^