Guest Blogger #1 – Football vs. Rugby

So I have asked a few of my current mates, old mates and friends to do guest spots on my blog and here is the first. She’s #10 on the Valkyries and passed the mohawk onto me in great fashion. Thanks Bags!

(I’m on the left in the photo and Bags is on the right…taken right after we became the #1 seed in the West.)

Football vs. Rugby

OK, so we all know Thanksgiving weekend is really about watching obscene amounts of football — not about visiting Gramma Grace or hearing Uncle Carlos talk about his bunions. And since rugby season has been over for 6 weeks for me — also an obscene fact — I have been watching football all weekend thinking about why, exactly, specifically, rugby is a better sport.

My evidence comes from an unlikely source: football games themselves.

First: I would argue that Texas A&M beat Texas on Friday because they play rugby-football more than football. Namely, they run the option. Stephen McGee would make an awesome flyhalf: quick, shifty, undersized but scrappy, and absolutely awesome at reading defenses. Despite UT’s superior athletes on the defensive side, this skinny little white kid shredded them for far more yardage than UT normally allows and led A&M to the upset victory. In rugby-speak, he was running perfect 2 v 1’s all afternoon: draw the D then dish; draw the D, show the dish then keep it; head fake; ball fake; eye fake — by the end of the 3rd quarter the UT linebackers and cornerbacks were dizzy from trying to watch McGee and his teammate juke and jive up the field.

Second: football plays, especially running plays, are too scripted and this can lead to disaster. Yes, I realize that blockers still have to work their assignments, can draw & fake out defenders, and runners have some degree of improvisation in hitting holes, but: i just watched the Patriots set up a beautiful reverse off a pitch then blow it by giving the ball to the double-reverse guy who promptly got smothered by like 37 Bear defenders in a 6 square yards. The pitch drew everyone left, so the reverse was golden up the right sideline: the reverse guy should have dummied the second receiver, held the defense and run onto glory. It’s basic dummy switches, and any umbrella player knows this: hold the forwards in the middle of the field with a switch
or dummy, then run wide with your speed in open space.

Duh.

Clearly i need to quit grad school and pursue a coaching career in the NFL. Don’t even get me started on their tackling form….perhaps for next time.

Yours in rugby,
Bags