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Opinion
It was with great hope and interest that I stumbled upon news of the first Major League Rugby Collegiate Draft to take place in America on August 19.
When I was growing up, one of my favourite sports to watch was gridiron. Despite being a rugby tragic, my enthusiasm for the American game was high – I even dabbled in the Sydney University gridiron team at the NSW University Games for a few games as running back.
Having played rugby for eight years, I can attest that I probably expected it to be less intense than rugby, and probably approached my first game with less respect than the sport deserved.
This quickly changed after my first rush. I was hit front-on and I was hit hard. The result? Zero yards, with myself lying on my back winded after being hit front on by what I believe was a car (actually, it was a six-foot-plus, 110kg defensive line player – and this was at Uni).
The sport’s intensity, although in shorter spurts, was no less powerful and in same cases even more so. Even with all the padding one wore, you could feel the hits because their tackling technique and objective was very different to rugby – helmet first, and get the man, not the ball.
As my interest and understanding in gridiron grew, I started watching the National Football League (NFL) more.
This was at a time when legendary players such as Joe Montana, Steve Young, Deion Sanders, Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice and Reggie White graced the field. It was certainly a good time as any to be watching the NFL.
I found that the beauty of the sport was the focus of the individual athletes aiming to be, not only good, but excellent, with a ‘goal to perfection’ in the core skills of their chosen position.
And the ultimate glory was getting the sum of the parts, the individual players doing their job, and coming together as a team, pulling off the plays that had been trained at practice. This feeling was not unlike the backs in rugby scoring off plays in set pieces – the feeling is something else.
Similar to rugby, all this extreme talent learn and hone their skills over years, starting at the junior levels and suburbs, through the schools, into college and finally, if you had the physical attributes, mental fortitude, motivation, work ethic and talent, you were into the NFL draft and hopefully drafted to an NFL team.
However, before the NFL draft started, elite only college football players were invited into an event called the NFL Scouting Combine (‘The Combine’).
The Combine is a one-week event in February and is by invitation only. Elite college football players have the opportunity to showcase their physical (size, speed, strength, power etc.) and mental abilities before NFL coaches, scouts and the like. The event impacts their status in the draft and, ultimately, their salary.
The Combine, together with the NFL Draft, is a highlight of the football pre-season, drawing a lot of attention from fans of the sport, building up the excitement for the new talent and coming season, and showcasing the tremendous athletic talent available in America.
The rugby world has always known that America is the sleeping giant of rugby.
If, one day, the sport was to gain serious traction, then America becoming the best rugby nation in the world would not be an unrealistic expectation, given the athletic talent at their disposal.
A scary prospect, for sure, but one that I am sure most rugby lovers would want to see.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.