Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I had one of those daft conversations with friends last night ahead of this weekend's sport, where England and Wales both go into football matches with quite high hopes of success, and Rugby internationals down under with much less optimism.

Someone remarked that in New Zealand, every kid grows up wanting to play rugby, not football (probably a broader generalisation than it used to be, seeing as the football team are doing quite well now) and we wondered whether, if rugby was predominantly the big sort in the UK and football a minority pursuit like hockey, would any of the people who've ended up as footballers have done a job on a rugby pitch instead?

The ones that combine pace with a bit of beef - or could do - are the obvious candidates for centres. Out-and-out speed merchants (Raheem Sterling?) might have been wingers? And then you've got the big unit centre-halves (Neil Ruddock always springs to mind), who might well have become decent second rows or flankers.

Any thoughts? Or do you think the physical attributes of a footballer so distinct from that of a rugby player that they are separate breeds altogether?

[G-Man]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Well, your 5'6" footballers might not have succeeded in rugby, but I see no reason why a chap like Gareth Bale shouldn't have been a backline rugby player.

[GCostanza]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Neil Ruddock.

[evilC]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Looking at Adebayo Akinfenwa, I wondered if he could have chosen American Football at some point in his youth, but now rugby would be the more obvious choice. It always surprises me that he can jump ...at all!

[Janik]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

There aren't many 5'6" top level Footballers these days. A few notable ones, of course, but they are pretty rare and I think that famous one of this height would have been a stellar scrum-half.

I'm of the opinion that the idea in the opening post is almost a given. The highest profile sport gets the lions share of the best athletes from a young age. If a different sport was the prominent one, some of the same names would be at the top of it.

There is also the 10,000 hours practice, sports stars are made not born thing. This is somewhat dubious but also has an element of truth.

On a similar subject, my Dad went along to the Handball at the last Olympics. His thinking afterwards was that Britain would never succeed in this sport because it had Rugby; that attracted the British people of the right physicality to play Handball well, whereas the Danish Rugby team will always be weak as their best bets are all heading for Handball.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

I reckoned Joe Hart would have made a decent fly-half, what with his main attributes being catching the ball, throwing himself at people and punting the thing 50 yards upfield.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

I'm sure there's loads of them. A lot of footballers would look very different if they went through the same weights regimen as rugby players.

[tee rex]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Soccer claims higher participation than rugby in New Zealand now. Kids may want to emulate the All Blacks they see on telly, but a lot of parents (generalisation: white, Asian) don't want their 10 year olds to get squashed by the bigger ones (generalization: Maori, Pasifika).

It's been suggested that NZ would do a lot better at track and field if the girls didn't all play netball, the most popular school sport of all.

Ryan Nelsen (the Richie McCaw of the round ball) would likely have made a crunching tackler, with hands or feet.

[Tapiocahead]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

I reckon Rory Mcardle might have made a decent fist of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xucbik8INpo

[KGR]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Several of the bigger goalkeepers, surely? They have a prediliction for wanting to catch the ball and throw it too. Fraser Forster would be a lovely no. 15.

Mind, they'd all wuss it underneath a Garryowen with no ref to blow if someone tackles them.

[Gangster Octopus]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

tee rex wrote: (generalisation: white, Asian)
(generalization: Maori, Pasifika)

Nice bet-hedging on spelling there...

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

As 90% of rugby union is a few pointless passes then an aimless punt up field, Tommy Burns would have excelled as a coach.

His star cross-over player would be Matt Mills with his ability to find touch with most of his aimless punts.

Frank Lampard could be added to the equation being a priviledged, public school, unprincipled Tory cunt.

And just to cover the social side, Julian Alsop and Sam Carruhers for their banana/pissing hilarity.

There. That covers most of my steadfast biggotry about rugger.

[tee rex]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Gangster Octopus wrote:

(generalisation: white, Asian)
(generalization: Maori, Pasifika)

Nice bet-hedging on spelling there...

I try to specialise in UK style, but my spell-check doesn't do me any favors ...

[Borracho]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

As 90% of rugby union is a few pointless passes then an aimless punt up field, Tommy Burns would have excelled as a coach.

Jesus wept.

[Gangster Octopus]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote: A lot of footballers would look very different if they went through the same weights regimen as rugby players.

"weights", yes...

[garcia]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

bale is the first one that comes to mind.

yohan cabaye reminds me of a scrum half for some reason.

oxlade chamberlain would have been (in fact, was) a good rugby player.

JT obviously.

richard dunne would have killed it.

[blameless]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Whenever I saw John Carew playing football I was always struck by the feeling that some rugby team somewhere was missing a no.8.

David Speedie would have made a decent scrum half, I think - although he was only little, he was hardwearing and a vicious little shite when the fancy took him.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

G-Man wrote: Well, your 5'6" footballers might not have succeeded in rugby, but I see no reason why a chap like Gareth Bale shouldn't have been a backline rugby player.

Yeah, this is a rugby goal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdjJz4zRmpI

[Ray de Galles]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Bale is a good call and, of course, he played rugby and football along with Sam Warburton at Whitchurch High School (which also produced Geraint Thomas) and was a very promising sprinter too.

Perhaps more surprisingly, Aaron Ramsey was on Caerphilly RFC's books as a winger in their youth team and was apparently approached by St Helens league side after playing against them.

.

[Tony C]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Richard Dunne would have been a world class prop.

[Jah Womble]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Vardy made it in Leicester. That's sort of 'near' Rugby.

Ah, that'll be my cab.

[ad hoc]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

England have a player, Danny Care, who was in the Sheffield Wednesday Academy and was eventually asked to choose between football and RU.

[scratchmonkey]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Taking it to another continent, Argentina of course has a healthy rugby history and I always thought Zanetti had the look of a rugby player to him, somewhere along the back-line I reckon, probably a fullback just for consistency's sake.

[Hot Orange]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

Russell Osman played for England Under 15s at rugby and captained them at Under 16s.

I don't know what position he played and can't speculate as I don't know anything about rugby.

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Would any footballers have made it in Rugby?

As a teenager, I fell off a skateboard ramp and broke my ankle on exactly the same day as Reading sacked Ian Porterfield.

My knee length plaster meant I was consigned to the main stand at Elm Park rather than my normal position at the back of the South Bank.

One of the contendees for the vacant managers position was Russel Osman who had recently been let go by Bristol City.

I took my place in the main stand, and right on kick off, who should come and sit right in front of me, none other than the aforementioned Osman.

He took out a copy of the local weekly paper, the Reading Chronicle, and scoured the sports pages for details of the team as he watched the game.

However, this lasted for about ten minutes before he turned to the front of the paper and started reading the local news. He hurried through the pages, but paused on the 'in court' section. He then proceeded to spend an inordinately long period of time reading a story about how a Jehovas Witnes had been caught without a TV license but was claiming excemption on religous grounds.

He then left just before half time (Osman, not the Jehovas Witness), never to return.

In the end, Mark McGhee got the job, with Madejski stating that he was the only candidate appearing to take the role seriously.

Obviously a question about religious ethics in relation to local media licensing never came up.