Rugby Union anyone?

[dooker15]

I know its not the right time to start a thread on rugby when there isn't any on, (i mean mainly national, as i never really watched clubs). recently in Glasgow there was the Glasgow 7s rugby, didn't get to go see any of it but Scotland seem to do ok, (why can't we do this well in the 6 nations or world cup, oh yea we see the try line and either panic and drop the ball or get so excited we might score we commit as many penalties as we can as quickly as we can). That was a long rant lol. I wish Scotland would go back to basics, and not add more complicated manoeuvres till they have the simple ones down. We came third in the six nations 2 years ago, so we can do it.

[dooker15]

Just gonna give this a shameless poke, I mean common there's not one person aside from me who like rugby!?

[Phil-O]

Just gonna give this a shameless poke, I mean common there's not one person aside from me who like rugby!?

 

Yes there is! Strange that there is noone else here. I'm German and I love and play rugby, as much as I like watching games when something is on - souch as 6nations, heinecken cup, international test matches and of course the WC.

 

Since you mentioned 7s, Germany is actually quite good (given it is purely amateur here!). Beat Scotland in the GPS series a couple times last year and plan to do so even more this season (starting this weekend). I fear the German team is developing very well but too late in order to be able to contest for an Olympic ticket, since only 12 teams will play in Rio.

 

On the 15s side Germany came close to qualifying for the WC2015 by almost beating Russia in the repechage, but the Bears scored twice in the closing 5 minutes. What a heartbreak. Again, rugby is purely amateur here and up until 2 year players even had to pay half their travel cost to away games. Our federation is f***ed up, no sponsors. It's a downward spiral meaning the game doesnt have a chance of rising out of the ashes. The only hope here are a few hundred thousand Euros budget per 4 years since the sport (sevens) became olympic. Not much to draw on though when you see how poor the game's infrastructure is.

 

Well enough moaning, it is how it is and it doesnt change my attitude to the game. Personally I will be playing in Heidelberg ("the" German rugby town, hosting 4 clubs from our modest premiership) next season, guess I will be in the 2nd team first and will then try to make the first team in the Bundesliga. I played in England, France, Turkey and South Africa before so I'm used to be thrown into new settings and adapt quickly...

 

How about yourself, any playing experience? BTW I really like some of the Scots, they produce some serious second and back row forwards. I thought the story about captain Kelly Brown (who is a mutterer, hard to believe a guy with his physique could have self-confidence issues ) is great. Shame though many things seem to be going wrong in terms of the federation's work, i.e. inability to reform club/province structures and get more young people to play the game. Not much coming through the ranks in the next years unfortunately...

[dooker15]

wow, I didn't know that about German rugby. But no I haven't really got any playing experience, well a little. I played some 7 aside at school but only against players in our own school (and my school was tiny so that was an accomplishment lol) can't really play it in a professional sense as im kinda underweight and (although it doesn't bother me too much) asthmatic, so my stamina is a bit low.

 

Scotland has some really good players, I agree Kelly Brown is actually underrated in my opinion. Richie Grey I feel is a bit overrated, he almost never misses tackle but he seems to go down to easily.

 

One of the issues I have with Rugby (and tennis actually but that's another thing altogether) is its very insular (maybe wrong word) as everyone knows each other or are related as they go to the same schools clubs ect, I don't understand that as there aren't exactly a shortage of places to play or small clubs.

 

Anyway good luck on your games and hope you make the first team.

 

Thanks for posting on this topic as well, glad to know there's some people who enjoy rugby on here.