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Was it because of all the hand balls?

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For anyone wondering, the US have only missed one WC since 1987 and have been a top 20 team in the world for ages, so this is pretty surprising

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At least they’re guaranteed to be in the 2031 World Cup

TIL: that the US had a national rugby team.

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US should play rugby league instead of union. League is much more similar to American football and they would do a lot better in it.

So I guess they won't be using their snazzy new jerseys with the USA logo in rainbow flag colours now.

I’m so tired of random updates from subs I’ve never clicked on…. /sigh

Is it? Other thank tackle sets I can’t think of one similarity.

League doesn't have really have many skills that American football players wouldn't have already from gridiron. In union they have things like the ruck, mauls and scrums (league scrums aren't anything special. The gameplay is also much more straightforward and simple so new players won't have much of an issue adapting.

I’m not sure if you haven’t watched American football or league based on this.

Passing and tackling would have to go back to very basics.

This is like saying chess is hard so kids should learn checkers and that they’ll be able to play checkers because snakes and ladders is on a grid.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_football_and_rugby_league

American football doesnt have the same skills that union does. Almost everything in league can be covered by American football experience. I'm not saying that gridiron players can't learn the skills in union, but they will be further behind the rest of the world who primarily play rugby union and have these skills as second nature. Barley anyone in the US plays rugby and most of them are people who couldn't make it in American football.

Posting an obscure Wikipedia article doesn’t make the two sports similar.

Quickly going to the two points I listed shows no analysis of how the players skills would translate across sports, but just a description of both sports’ rules.

I didn’t say union is the same skill set, I said saying American football and league does is preposterous.

Even by your own example, the Wikipedia page lists a miracle play as the best example that American football players can pass backwards, and the score in the crossover game listed shows the American football team scored zero points in the rugby league half while conceding 32. Almost as if they didn’t have the skills covered by the American football experience.

Honestly American football is not similar to either sport. The skills set is just completely different. Hell half of them don’t even tackle during the game.

The US team is gonna be just as bad at that point as they are now.

Monumental incompetence on the part of USA Rugby, that's how.

His point is that it's closer than union. Not the exact same, but closer. Even the tackles in league are closer because they arent as strict when it comes to head contact or wrapping arms. League is a lot less complicated than union and there's also feck all competitive teams in it. You've got Australia, then a massive drop in quality to whoever comes 2nd. I'd also be surprised if a rugby player who grew up in the US never played or watched American football. So the parts that overlap would certainly help.

There's over 100 nations on the world rankings. Only the top 15 or so are good though.

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