History Main / RugbyIsSlaughter

Rugby is one of several games that Americans, for the most part, do not get. It's OK, people who get rugby often do not get American football, which is a sort of rugby for [[DirtyCoward cowards]]. While the two games look broadly similar there are three facts about Rugby that tend to stand out:

Rugby is one of several games that Americans, for the most part, do not get. It's OK, people who get rugby often do not get American football. While the two games look broadly similar there are three facts about Rugby that tend to stand out:

[[folder:General]]
* Back during the 2007 Rugby World Cup, one French player (Sébastien Chabal) went through MemeticMutation as a hairy violent lunatic who [[EatsBabies ate babies]] and wore a BadassBeard.
[[/folder]]

* ''FullMetalPanic? Fumoffu'' has the hilarious Rugby episode (pictured above) -- which is something of a subversion due to the clear indication that it was excessive violence. Sōsuke gives TrainingFromHell to a sissy team of rugby players. The ending result is... [[HilarityEnsues highly amusing]].

* Parodied with ''{{Asterix}} in Britain'': a rugby game is made more "interesting" when it turns out that the players' drink has been spiked with [[SuperSerum magic potion]].
** It was already pretty violent without the potion. Obelix enthusiastically comments, "We must import this fun game in Gaul!"
** "The rules are simple. The ball can be brought beyond the other team's goal line by practically any means necessary. The use of weapons is prohibited, barring prior agreement."
* GastonLagaffe briefly gives rugby a try but gives up after getting repeatedly and violently tackled.

* The opening scene of ''{{The Four Feathers}}'' has the junior officers from two British regiments playing rugby. In the rain. And the mud. And the sweet young English girls in their white linen leg-of-mutton-sleeved dresses standing on the sidelines under their umbrellas obviously getting--in a very understated, ladylike way--quite worked up over the sight of all those big, strong, handsome, muscular men beating the stuffing out of one another.

* TruthInTelevision for anyone in the UK who wasn't built like an eleven-year-old brick shithouse and had to face down a squadron of their classmates who were in enforced physical education lessons. [[BlatantLies No bitterness here.]]

* [[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1016586/index.htm This hilarious article]] from 1999 documents a rare moment of cross-cultural outreach among fans of rugby, Aussie rules, and gridiron.

->''On a crisp fall day in 1823 William Webb Ellis picked up a football in his hands and ran with it. To this day, backs throughout the world hail this moment as the birth of rugby. Forwards, however, know that the game was not really invented until 1.5 seconds later, when Roland Dimrumple drove a squealing Mr. Ellis' face into the turf, kicked him in the solar plexus and told him to "keep his sodding hands off the ball."''
-->-- '''Anonymous'''[[hottip:*: For the record, as noted by {{QI}}, the story is false, rugby being a ''much'' older game.]]

* The "American football is a sissy game" was lampshaded in the comedy ''Necessary Roughness", where [=McKenzie=], the player from Australia, refuses at first to wear the pads because "the only people who should wear pads are the referees". He's promptly knocked unconscious by a heavily padded linebacker... but he never drops the ball.

* Buck Shelford famously had his scrotum ripped in a ruck, playing for New Zealand against France in 1986. Famously because with one testicle dangling free, [[{{Badass}} he calmly asked the doc to stitch him up]] [[RatedMForManly and went back out to play.]] He ended the game with four teeth knocked out and a concussion, and has no memory of the match.

* Buck Shelford famously had his scrotum ripped in a ruck, playing for New Zealand against France in 1986. Famously because with one testicle dangling free, [[Badass he calmly asked the doc to stitch him up and went back out to play.]] He ended the game with four teeth knocked out and a concussion, and has no memory of the match.

* Buck Shelford famously had his scrotum ripped in a ruck, playing for New Zealand against France in 1986. Famously because with one testicle dangling free, he calmly asked the doc to stitch him up and went back out to play. He ended the game with four teeth knocked out and a concussion, and has no memory of the match.

* ''[=~Monty Python's the Meaning of Life~=]'' has a scene with a pretty brutal game of rugby, and to emphases the violence of it all, it leads into a scene in a war zone.
** As if it weren't bad enough, it's a game being played by students of a private school against their teachers, and the kids are being brutally roughed up. One of the professors watching the game even trips a student has he runs by so he can be tackled.

** This is probably the most inaccurate depiction of rugby, ever. Despite it being a ''friendly'' game (in the "not official") sense, Ross is not only beaten to a bloody pulp but is ''encouraged'' by Emily to retaliate with full force, which he does after learning about the weaknesses (specifically, old injuries) of the other players... even the ones on his team!
*** Well, no shit. He also leaps headfirst into what may be supposed to be a ruck or a scrum (it being a twenty-person CIRCLE, it's difficult to tell) in an apparent attempt to get the ball, which apart from being a damn good way to get hurt would also be a case of killing the ball/playing it off your feet. DidNotDoTheResearch, indeed.

* TruthInTelevision for anyone in the UK who wasn't built like an eleven-year-old brick shithouse, went to a private school and had to face down a squadron of their classmates who were in enforced physical education lessons. [[BlatantLies No, I'm not bitter.]]
** Not just private schools. Pretty much any school (unless it's all female, as mine was) will still have rugby as a P.E. sport.
** Even if you don't have to play the sport itself, you still need to watch out for those who do play it during any competitive sport. Especially wrestling. Trust me.

* This troper played Rugby for his High School. Prior to his first practice, his father told him a story. In college, hi father and roomate were planning to try out for the rugby squad one day. The evening prior, there was a match. The father and roommate run into their friend who had convinced them to try out for the team. He wasn't wearing a shirt and had a bandage over one of his nipples. His response, when asked about the origin of the wound: "Someone bit me." Yes, I still played, knowing this story. All I have to show for it was one extremely minor concussion, having played in both the HS and colledge level. (in America.) Also, one of my neighbors, British, once mentioned that the most painful Rugby matches occurred after he moved to America, in his mid-20's.
** As an Australian, I can confirm that American Rugby tends to be a lot more violent than Australian Rugby. As far as I can see, it's because all the Americans treat tackling the same way they treat Gridiron tackling - Like you're wearing heavy body armor.

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* In a ''{{Friends}}'' episode, Ross plays Rugby to impress Emily, and ends up in agony.

* The "American Football is a sissy game" was lampshaded in the comedy ''Necessary Roughness", where [=McKenzie=], the player from Australia, refuses at first to wear the pads because "the only people who should wear pads are the referees". He's promptly knocked unconscious by a heavily padded linebacker... but he never drops the ball.

Rugby is one of several games that Americans, for the most part, do not get. It's OK, people who get Rugby often do not get American Football. While the two games look broadly similar there are three facts about Rugby that tend to stand out:

For this reason, much media depicts Rugby as an agonizing slaughterhouse masquerading as a sport. While the truth of the matter is that both American Football and Rugby are about as dangerous to the players per minute of the match played. The risks, and if truth be told type of fitness needed, are different. If Rugby gets mentioned in fiction, however, there is a good chance that someone is going home in agony.

It is not confined to American Media either. Nations where Rugby is played a lot tend to compare it to games like Football (or Soccer) and often come to the same impressions. Furthurmore, the global Rugby community seems to revel in their sport's repuatation, taking perverse joy in the fact that the very mention of its name is enough to make American Football and Soccer fans squirm.

* ''FullMetalPanic? Fumoffu'' has the hilarious Rugby episode (picturd above) -- which is something of a subversion due to the clear indication that it was excessive violence. Sōsuke gives TrainingFromHell to a sissy team of rugby players. The ending result is... [[HilarityEnsues highly amusing]].

* ''FullMetalPanic? Fumoffu'' has the hilarious Rugby episode -- which is something of a subversion due to the clear indication that it was excessive violence. Sōsuke gives TrainingFromHell to a sissy team of rugby players. The ending result is... [[HilarityEnsues highly amusing]].

* ''BedknobsAndBroomsticks'' has the protagonist nearly killed in an absurdly violent game of football played by cartoon animals… As the referee.

* ''BedknobsAndBroomsticks'' has the protagonist nearly killed in an absurdly violent game of rugby played by cartoon animals… As the referee.
** No, it was football, not rugby.

-->-- '''Anonymous'''[[hottip:*: For the record, as noted by {{QI}}, the story is false]]

-->-- '''Anonymous'''

*** Well, no shit. He also leaps headfirst into what may be supposed to be a ruck or a scrum (it being a twenty-person CIRCLE, it's difficult to tell) in an apparent attempt to get the ball, which apart from being a damn good way to get hurt would also be a case of killing the ball/playing it off your feet. DidNotDoTheReasearch, indeed.