Is English Rugby Union an elitist sport?

A few years back I coached a 7 team in New York ( for a local school) . They got funding from the US Olympic committee and it was organised by a business ran by a Brit over here. It was/is called play rugby USA. I'm no fan of rugby 7's but it was great to see kids getting engaged in the sport. They were all NYC inner-city kids. With the correct structure and coaching it can offer a lot.
Just a.shame kids don't seem to be getting the chance to.experience that in the UK .
 
buffaloboro said:
A few years back I coached a 7 team in New York ( for a local school) . They got funding from the US Olympic committee and it was organised by a business ran by a Brit over here. It was/is called play rugby USA. I'm no fan of rugby 7's but it was great to see kids getting engaged in the sport. They were all NYC inner-city kids. With the correct structure and coaching it can offer a lot.
Just a.shame kids don't seem to be getting the chance to.experience that in the UK .
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Obviously 7s appeals to more people particularly across there as games ar shorter and scoring is a plenty. And of course it’s an Olympic sport. Love 7s especially watching how the Fijians play it. The US women’s team have made great strides in both 7s and 15 a side games to the point that they can compete with the best.
 
There was definitely an element of elitist in rugby union. It’s probably the reason why other teams love to beat England. Rugby league is different. It’s played in mainly Northern England and is definitely played by people who don’t go to private school.

Having said that; when at school in Billingham we played loads of rugby union. The PE teachers were involved in the sport outside of school so organised it.

As has been mentioned on here. Union is starting to change. The likes of Kyle Sinckler is not the typical private educated player.
 
I remember reading an article a few years ago comparing the very working class French and private school English Rugby, saying some of the French players from the North East had come straight out of Coal mining teams and frightend the daylights out of some of our rugger buggers. It was when that huge hairy fekker played for france.
 
I think you have to differentiate two elements of the debate.
Rugby Union fans tend to be from better off backgrounds, this is particularly noticeable if you are anywhere near Twickenham on an international match.
I dont believe that the players all come from the same background, rugby is played more in public schools than football, Equally people take up rowing or polo and these are definitely elitist.
In the state schools I went to in the midlands or south west, we played rugby in mid winter. To be fair it was a good excuse to stay warm when we got the ball in the scrum, nobody let it out for a good few minutes. It usually took someone to break wind before the scrum collapsed, and a fight started. We also played football and cricket.

Just because Rugby Union is bigger in the Midlands, South and South West doesnt mean that it is posh. Equally Rugby League is played in the North doesnt just mean it is played by more down to earth people. There are many normal people based here in the South West. The big divide is if you are good at sports you would want to go into football, there is more money, less injuries and it is possible to try to play in multiple positions. Rugby injuries are common, teams are smaller and you tend not to be able to move positions, if you are built like a brick s**t house you are a forward.
 
Osboro said:
I remember reading an article a few years ago comparing the very working class French and private school English Rugby, saying some of the French players from the North East had come straight out of Coal mining teams and frightend the daylights out of some of our rugger buggers. It was when that huge hairy fekker played for france.
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Sebastian Chabel I think. He played for Sale Sharks and was a quality player.
 
There were lots of rugby balls in the store room at my school In Middlesbrough in the 1960's. There were no rugby pitches or posts though- I never once saw a game of rugby in the 5 years I was there.
 
Anton_Berg said:
Hartlepool was once considered a Rugby enclave, having two clubs. Andy Capp was sometimes depicted playing rugby.
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Still is. I played against a few Hartlepool teams when playing for Billingham.

Billingham Rugby Club has a great set up these days.
 
Anton_Berg said:
Hartlepool was once considered a Rugby enclave, having two clubs. Andy Capp was sometimes depicted playing rugby.
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Hartlepool Rovers and West Hartlepool. Always found them tough teams to play against, particularly West Hartlepool.
 
My school, which is now an academy, was a decent rugby school and produced an England International so its not quite that simple.

The basic fact is that when rugby split into two codes it was roughly because league players had blue collar jobs and union players had white collar jobs. So it's easy to see that the class divide was there in the beginning. It's much less so now. But it does seem to be geographical still. I would say the North East is more union than league though.
 
I went to a run of the mill comp in Stockton. Never had an interest in rugby until i started at 12. We played as much rugby as we did football. I ended up playing for the school for 5 years. 3 Durham cups and 4 Cleveland cups later and i love the sport and have done ever since. The cup wins in part to having a British and Irish Lion in the team but hey ho.

Having experienced football clubs and rugby clubs, i always said if there was a choice, i'd push my children towards joining a rugby club due to the values they breed and the morals they promote. Football has always and will most likely always be my sport but it has a lot to learn from football on a number of levels.
 
We played rugby at school every year, but at the time I wasn't really fussed with it. I only got into it when I got to uni and all my housemates loved it and dragged me along to watch both England games and the varsity matches which are huge. One of the things I noticed was the English lads who were in the team did tend to be privately educated but some of the NI lads were pretty rough and absolute raging alcoholics.

I think as an area Teesside isn't that rugby-mad, probably because of a lack of any real elite level local team. Whether that leads to the perception that it's not liked by everyday people, I'm not sure.
 
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