Could rugby union learn from the American Football?

[MrPartridge]

I wonder how much Rugby Union could learn from the American Football and vica versa?

One element of Tigers game that I feel let's us down are our poor re-starts. Surely employing a similar onside kickoff technique used in American Football would give the kicking team a much better chance of competing for the ball. If you are not aware of what an onside kick off is, see You Tube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIETTrDSiRM

Onside kicks also employ a different 'flat' technique where the ball is often very much drilled hard along the ground at an angle (creating a sort of 'bouncing bomb' scenario). See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDL0UnXMGo0. (not the best example but can't spend hours on You Tube!) Again a similar approach in Rugby Union would surely make it harder for the receiving team to collect the ball - i.e. more chance of a knock-on when trying to collect the ball rather than a simple catch for high kick-off?

Of course the two games are very different, but I'm surprised to see that the onside kick approach has not been tried out in rugby. As far as I am aware the laws of both games are similar in that all players at kickoff must be behind the kicker and the ball must travel at least 10 yards.

According to NFL stats 20% of onside kicks were recovered by the kicking team from 2000 to 2012 which isn't a bad success rate and you have to be aware that there is no penalty for a 'knock on' in American Football.

Just a thought...give it a go Toby...

[DickyP]

The one thing professional Rugby Union could learn from NFL is to have more officials with different roles. They have 7 on the field watching different aspects.

[shedster]

Its correct to say that more onside kicks are recovered in american football but this misses the fundmental difference between the sports . In american football you can take players out when they are no where near the ball in rugby this would or should be penalised ,this leads to any support player being "removed" and so it becomes a free for all on the ground between the first players there ! So more of a chance of a turn over , cheers

[DickyP]

Not to mention the shape of the American Football itself means it bounces far more awkwardly, when stub-kicked end over end.

[LE18]

We don't want to copy anything from their game, we complain when TMO takes a few seconds to sort out a decision, their game stops every 10 seconds for some reason, often less than 10 seconds and lasts as long as 5 hours, no thank you, let's keep our great game as it is, bad enough when rugby league came along.

[longlivethecrumbie]

We don't want to copy anything from their game, we complain when TMO takes a few seconds to sort out a decision, their game stops every 10 seconds for some reason, often less than 10 seconds and lasts as long as 5 hours, no thank you, let's keep our great game as it is, bad enough when rugby league came along.

I've advocated this on previous threads but I really, really, really would like them to look at getting a specific scrum time ref who is wheeled on at scrum time and off again when the scrum is over. Someone who knows what the hell is going on in there and can call it correctly. It's one thing that, I think, unites everyone on this forum (tons of restarts, refs guessing at what's going on etc) and I think would assist the game (along with getting rid of the 'hit' engagement). But that's wheeling us back to a whole other discussion and there are specific threads on here for that already.

[tigerburnie]

I think the short answer to the question is no,that is one sorry excuse for a game at the top level.College football is a lot better,with less interuptions for adverts,but still nowhere near as good as rugby.

[G.K]

..let's keep our great game as it is, bad enough when rugby league came along.

You can remember that then?

[DickyP]

We don't want to copy anything from their game, we complain when TMO takes a few seconds to sort out a decision, their game stops every 10 seconds for some reason, often less than 10 seconds and lasts as long as 5 hours, no thank you, let's keep our great game as it is, bad enough when rugby league came along.

That's why if anything we cherry-pick the best bits. We've already got the problem of TV deciding how and when the game runs - I can't see it being that long before the demand (and get) mid-half advert breaks. Why for instance do we 'need' 15 minutes at half-time?

One thing that American football does do quickly is that officials make decisions very quickly, so I wouldn't following their lead on more officials as being a real problem.

If we just want to speed up games one area where we could do this is to eliminate the knock-on as an 'offence'. A dropped ball belongs to whoever recovers it. Only proviso being that you need to be onside to recover it.

[4071]

Is the OP referring to the fairly common rugby tactic of switch-kicking the restart?


As for the kick-off along the ground - have you ever seen a rugby game played in the wet? I've seen it a fair few times. Though to be effective the ball is kicked too fast for the kicker's team to chase, so rather than allowing competition for the ball it relies purely on the opposition making a mistake.


EDIT: Also, bear in mind the requirement to restart with a drop kick, which makes it harder to hammer a kick along the ground and impossible to leave the kick-off to a second player.

[h's dad]

Why for instance do we 'need' 15 minutes at half-time?

I think it's only supposed to be ten minutes. I'm sure the players appreciate the breather.

[G.K]

No it's because of the long queues at the bar.

[h's dad]

No it's because of the long queues at the bar.

Now I learned early on to buy enough before the match to last the whole match without having to re-stock

[MrPartridge]

Slightly surprised by the largely negative comments coming back here. I thought more people would appreciate a range of sports...

One thing rugby could learn from American Football is excitement. The NFL post season this year has had some truly amazing games capped off by the 4th great Superbowl in a row!

I'm just reading Bradley Wiggins book and he puts a huge amount of his success in 2011-12 (including his Tour de France win) down to the arrival of Tim Kerrison at Team Sky. Kerrison had previously advised swimmers and brought new ideas to cycling that have revolutionised the sport. Union has learned a great deal from League in terms of how to defend better, so I'd like to see more options explored...

[LE18]

I really do not like the game, as stated before, its too long, too many stoppages every few seconds, too much razzamatazz, too much hipe, please see other readers posts regarding sarries, I am a traditional rugby union fan and want to keep it that way, how can anyone put up with that dreadful american drawl?

After the fantastic atmosphere at the first round of the 6 nations this weekend, who could want to bring in that american game with all its padding, false hipe etc, really drives me bonkers. Its just a load of popcorn!