Football is extremely popular in the United States and has a following across the world, but rugby is the opposite.

Both sports have professional competitions, but rugby will be returning to the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after almost 100 years, according to www.rio2016.com.

An argument for why rugby is superior to football is simple field dimensions. A rugby field is considerably larger than a football field, most notably in width. This is an argument for rugby players being more athletic.

Rugby’s 15 players on the field compared to football’s 11 shows a greater adaptability and team cohesiveness while strategizing.

In football, the ball has several ways of being passed to transport it as far as possible. Rugby makes it more difficult than just throwing it forewords because it’s illegal to do so. The closest play that might mimic football’s throw is punting it as precise as possible while hoping that your own teammate will catch it or grab and run.

Another element of moving the ball is that your teammates can’t pass the person running the ball. There’s no blocking for the runner, only rucking after he gets tackled or drops the ball. In this way the game can keep progressing until there is a fowl play or a call to restart another scrum.

Look up both sports at www.dsr.wa.gov.au and www.nfl..com/rulebook.

Without any evidence, there’s the concept that rugby is more arduous and intense. Without armor, the game might be more painful. Watching both sports it appears that both hit hard and and create the same injuries. There are technical ways to tackle in rugby and it’s meant to limit the risk of injury, but while in the heat of the game those rules tend to go out the proverbial window.

Surely, EWU’s male and female rugby teams are welcoming to anyone that wants to try out the sport and to answer any questions.

Rugby is fresh to those who want something different than the American past time.