Can any NRL (rugby league) players succeed in NFL?

[mikiemo83]

So 340 lbs is about average. That is certainly a reasonable weight for some offensive linemen.

I would assume an easily achieved weight for some....for some reason the names Damian Woody and Nate Newton pop into my mind, Nate's was from the munchies

would height be a disadvantage?

 

[chef]

Any takers on the trash talking Anthony Mundine? People loved to hate this guy when he was in league and in boxing, third time lucky with NFL?

mundine v antwun echols<o></o>

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Mundine v Jose Alberto Clavero

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Mundine wins against Danny Green<o></o>

Mundine backflip v[FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Taumafai (used to love his backflip after every try in league)

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ey monaro, from the name + ur love of mudine/NRL, ur an aussie?

 

[O_P_T]

If Dr Z is to be believed, , at least one NFL teams has tried to sign some rugby players.

New Zealand checks in. First call goes to Zhivan of Auckland, who suggests that "if you like great athletes in contact sports," watch a few All Blacks that he mentions by name.

Oh sure, we watched some serious rugby on our last trip. Waratahs vs. Highlanders in the Super 12's at Carisbrook in Dunedin. Sang right along with the fans ... "Welcome to the house of paaaaiin," etc. When I got home I called an NFL general manager who once seriously tried to sign the All Blacks' Jonah Lomu. I told him the guys who really impressed me were the ones we used to call wing forwards, 235-240-pounders with speed and savagery, who went piling into the loose scrums like maniacs. Looked for all the world like NFL linebackers, or at least demon special teamers.

His answer was that he had already expressed an interest in some of these Kiwis, but the problem was that he couldn't pay them enough. An NFL contract to be a reserve linebacker or special teamer wasn't as interesting to them as what NZ offered, the acclaim, the lifestyle of an All Black, and yes, I guess when everything's tallied, the $$$, too.

 

[harrisonhits]

<<
I often wonder how NFL offensive linemen would do in real Sumo wrestling competition.
>>

Not well. I have followed Sumo for quite awhile, watched it a lot on tv and been to one of the tournaments in Tokyo to see the upper division go at it.

Totally different techniques including that you can slap the sh*t out of the other guy as long as its open handed. Many different grips and throws that you can't do in football.

But the same way I said it would be all about retraining and learning the techniques for a rugby player and football, it would be the same for an NFL player trying Sumo.

<<
too light
>>

Not necessarily. There are no weight limits of any kind, all weights wrestle each other in sumo and a couple of the toughest guys currently in the upper division are the smaller lighter ones, especially Ama who is one mean little bastard. Weights around 275lb so not really that little. Does well against much bigger opponents though.

 

[monaroCountry]

ey monaro, from the name + ur love of mudine/NRL, ur an aussie?

I'm an Aussie but most Aussies actually hate Anthony Mundines, most want to see him knocked out. This is really a typical Aussie thing called "tallpoppy" and like any good Aussies we also root for the quiet unassuming hard worker over the arrogant flashy player. I'm actually a fan of Danny Green.



Comparison of American football and rugby league

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_football_and_rugby_league

A comparison of American football and rugby league football can be made due to their shared origins, resulting in similarities and shared concepts in terms of scoring and advancing the ball. Of all the world's sports (except Canadian football), rugby league is the sport that American football is most similar to. Both sports involve the concept of a limited number of 'tackles'/'downs', and in both sports scoring 'touchdowns'/'tries' takes a clear precedence over goal-kicking.

 

[chef]

i love mundine that guy is great

were u from in aus?


and the NFL came from rugby

 

[monaroCountry]

i love mundine that guy is great

were u from in aus?


and the NFL came from rugby

Sydney.


Chef some more State of Origin footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1d4qd7SjEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egmXud5nvso

Most of these players fighting each other are team mates at club level. When it comes to SoS it doesnt matter if its your club team mate or your best friend, its Queenslanders versus New South Welshman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vdQrAvLH2k&feature=related

 

[chef]

sydey is gay

yeh, im from melbourne, seen all the SoO

 

[gomezcat]

If Dr Z is to be believed, , at least one NFL teams has tried to sign some rugby players.

Wing forwards (AKA Flankers, or back row forwards) do have the size, tackling technique, physicality and speed to play LB, but as AllWorldTE correctly pointed out, it would be a hell of a leap from that position in Rugby Union to Football. There is absolutely no equivalent of pass coverage in Rugby.

I should also clarify something for our American cousins. There are two types of Rugby: the more popular one is Rugby Union. It has more complicated rules than league and features that have no relation to Football.

The other is the one that chef and Monaro are talking about, which is Rugby League. It is simpler, bears more resemblance to Football in many ways (you have six tackles to move the length of the field before you have to surrender possession, by punting it away) and features a more generic athlete who is generally very fit, explosive and weighs around 210-250.

I personally prefer Union (although I grew up in the part of England where League is more popular) but some of its skills (scrummaging, rucking, lineouts and so on) don't translate into Football. The defensive part of both parts, as well as the ball carrying skills, do translate however.

Edit: sorry, I hadn't seen Monaro's last post...

 

[SteelerFan87]

The big difference to me is not athletic skill, because clearly there are plenty of great athletes playing international rugby, but rather specialization.

Rugby guys seem to be a compromise between speed and strength, elusiveness and toughness and most would fit better at, say, TE, LB or special teams as already has been mentioned.

I'd love to see each sport send a team to compete against the other in their specialty just to see what would happen, but I doubt we ever see it.

I'll tell you one thing though: Rugby guys seem to think the pads make NFL players more pussified. That is an easy judgement to make when you haven't been involved in a helmet-to-helmet hit at full speed. After that, you tend to think differently.

I saw this show where they measured the force of rugby and NFL hits. The rugby hit was like getting hit with a hammer. The NFL hit was like being in a 35 mph car crash.

Also I agree that rugby players would probably be best suited to playing TE, LB, Safety, etc, and would most likely be used primarily on Special Teams, which I think they would be great at. The problem is would they be decent enough at their official position to be more than just a pure special teams specialist if people get hurt and they have to play, say, TE or Safety? Maybe after a couple years, if he's a fast learner.

 

[chef]

Wing forwards (AKA Flankers, or back row forwards) do have the size, tackling technique, physicality and speed to play LB, but as AllWorldTE correctly pointed out, it would be a hell of a leap from that position in Rugby Union to Football. There is absolutely no equivalent of pass coverage in Rugby.

I should also clarify something for our American cousins. There are two types of Rugby: the more popular one is Rugby Union. It has more complicated rules than league and features that have no relation to Football.

The other is the one that chef and Monaro are talking about, which is Rugby League. It is simpler, bears more resemblance to Football in many ways (you have six tackles to move the length of the field before you have to surrender possession, by punting it away) and features a more generic athlete who is generally very fit, explosive and weighs around 210-250.

I personally prefer Union (although I grew up in the part of England where League is more popular) but some of its skills (scrummaging, rucking, lineouts and so on) don't translate into Football. The defensive part of both parts, as well as the ball carrying skills, do translate however.

Edit: sorry, I hadn't seen Monaro's last post...

yeh, im a union boy myself, but for the sake of this argument, im just using the NRL examples

and SoO is ****ing mad

 

[monaroCountry]

yeh, im a union boy myself, but for the sake of this argument, im just using the NRL examples

and SoO is ****ing mad

From Melbourne and also a union fan, thats two strikes already .

I saw this show where they measured the force of rugby and NFL hits. The rugby hit was like getting hit with a hammer. The NFL hit was like being in a 35 mph car crash.

Also I agree that rugby players would probably be best suited to playing TE, LB, Safety, etc, and would most likely be used primarily on Special Teams, which I think they would be great at. The problem is would they be decent enough at their official position to be more than just a pure special teams specialist if people get hurt and they have to play, say, TE or Safety? Maybe after a couple years, if he's a fast learner.

Trust me rugby guys especially league guy (which have a better and more at speed defense) are hard hitters. The thing is that tackles aren't just big hits but big hits:
-that secure the ball (prevent offloads),
-drives the opponent back (lifting and driving with the legs or big hits) and
-slowing down the play the ball (giving your team more time to reset their defensive line by lying on the player forcing him on his back etc).

In rugby league the most dangerous types of tackles isn't the big hits but the spear tackle (like a pile drive), elbows/knees/head to head clash, and the grapple tackle which usually involves 2-3 players attacking the head and neck area (by twisting the neck and forcing the tackled on his back and by cutting off oxygen and blood to the head).

Spear Tackle

Grapple Tackle

 

[monaroCountry]

Size wize NFL players win hands down. Its very very very rare to see an fat/obese rugby league player especially in a fast paced and continuous game like league. Gaining weight and bulk isnt an issue with many of these guys and can be easily done, its just that size and weight isn't an advantage in league. Size wise the Polynesians have the perfect build for any rugby league, rugby union and NFL foward and offensive/defensing linemen. Normally however NFL would have the heaviest player, Rugby Union the tallest and Rugby League the fittest.


2008 MELBOURNE STORM (RUGBY LEAGUE - NRL)

NAME---HEIGHT---WEIGHT

Matt Geyer -1.82m 91kg
Israel Folau -1.95m 103 kg
Steve Turner -1.77m 85 kg
Cam Smith -1.85m 92 kg
Russell Aitken – 1.87m 93 kg
Scott Anderson -1.89m 111 kg
Adam Blair – 1.88m 108 kg
Will Chambers – 1.88m 100 kg
Michael Crocker – 1.85m 100 kg
Cooper Cronk – 1.78m 88 kg
Liam Foran -1.80m 84 kg
Aidan Guerra -1.93m 98 kg
Ryan Hoffman -1.93m104 kg
Greg Inglis -1.95m99 kg
Dallas Johnson -1.83m92 kg
Sinbad Kali -1.95m112 kg
Antonio Kaufusi -1.90m114 kg
Jeff Lima -1.82m104 kg
Ben MacDougall -1.83m88 kg
Sika Manu -1.80m107 kg
Lucas Miller -1.93m97 kg
Dane Nielsen -1.87m97 kg
Kevin Proctor -1.89m103 kg
Anthony Quinn -1.80m93 kg
Billy Slater -1.81m89 kg
Jeremy Smith -1.84m100 kg
Sam Tagataese -1.92m100 kg
Aiden Tolman -1.83m103 kg
Joseph Tomane -1.89m95 kg
Danny Vaughan -1.87m111 kg
Brett White -1.87m110 kg




2008 NEW YORK GIANT (AMERICAN FOOTBALL)

NAME---HEIGHT---WEIGHT

Quarterbacks
Eli Manning – 1.93m102 kg
Anthony Wright – 1.85m96 kg

Running Backs
Ahmad Bradshaw -1.75m90 kg
Reuben Droughns – 1.80m100 kg
Kay-Jay Harris – 1.83m109 kg
Danny Ware – 1.83m106 kg

Wide Receivers
Domenik Hixon -1.88m83 kg
Sinorice Moss – 1.73m84 kg
Steve Smith – 1.80m89 kg
Amani Toomer – 1.91m92 kg
David Tyree – 1.83m93 kg

Tight Ends
Kevin Boss – 1.98m115 kg
Jerome Collins – 1.93m121 kg
Marcus Freeman – 1.88m112 kg
Darcy Johnson – 1.96m114 kg
Michael Matthews – 1.93m112 kg

Offensive Linemen
Kevin Boothe -1.96m143 kg
Na'Shan Goddard – 1.96m143 kg
Shaun O'Hara – 1.91m 137 kg
Grey Ruegamer – 1.93m136 kg
Rich Seubert – 1.91m141 kg

Defensive Linemen
Osi Umenyiora – 1.91m118 kg
Jay Alford – 1.91m138 kg
Rodney Leisle – 1.91m 143 kg
Barry Cofield -1.93m139 kg
Fred Robbins – 1.93m 144 kg

Linebackers
Rory Johnson – 1.85m 108 kg
Tank Daniels – 1.91m112 kg
Chase Blackburn – 1.91m112 kg
Keith O'Neil – 1.83m 109 kg
Antonio Pierce – 1.85m108 kg

Defensive Back
Darren Barnett – 1.83m84 kg
Kevin Dockery – 1.73m85 kg
Michael Johnson – 1.88m94 kg
Sammy Knight – 1.85m98 kg
Sam Madison – 1.80m82 kg
R. W. McQuarters – 1.78m88 kg
Geoff Pope – 1.83m84 kg
Aaron Ross – 1.85m87 kg

Special Teams
Jeff Feagles – 1.85m98 kg
Lawrence Tynes – 1.85m92 kg

Restricted FAs
James Butler – 1.91m98 kg
Jared Lorenzen – 1.93m129 kg

Exclusive-Rights FAs
Robert Douglas -1.85m104 kg
Michael Jennings – 1.80m82 kg
Dave Tollefson – 1.93m116 kg

 

[chef]

From Melbourne and also a union fan, thats two strikes already .




Trust me rugby guys especially league guy (which have a better and more at speed defense) are hard hitters. The thing is that tackles aren't just big hits but big hits:
-that secure the ball (prevent offloads),
-drives the opponent back (lifting and driving with the legs or big hits) and
-slowing down the play the ball (giving your team more time to reset their defensive line by lying on the player forcing him on his back etc).

In rugby league the most dangerous types of tackles isn't the big hits but the spear tackle (like a pile drive), elbows/knees/head to head clash, and the grapple tackle which usually involves 2-3 players attacking the head and neck area (by twisting the neck and forcing the tackled on his back and by cutting off oxygen and blood to the head).

Spear Tackle

Grapple Tackle

had to use storm players for the graple picture didn't u


union > league.


tackles us league r alot worse is league, with the second man going around the neck/head a hell of a lot of time

 

[monaroCountry]

had to use storm players for the graple picture didn't u

Dirty players those Melbournians :grrr:, loved their grapple tackles.

Probably angry that the rest of the world thinks Sydney is Australia's capital city j/koke:oke:

 

[chef]

dirty players?
who cares, they're champions.

 

[gomezcat]

I sat through the England "performance" this morning (we lost to Scotland). I am officially depressed again.

 

[chef]

yeh, i don't hav much either, Ireland lose, D'arcy still out, no clue wat is happnin with murphy, and now no O'Driscoll
England now have a great shot to beat us

****ing english

 

[Tyler.Durden]

Izzy falou is a man child, 18 years old and legs like tree trunks, he throws players around like rag dolls.

 

[chef]

also going to get a $1.6 mill contract to stay with the storm
1.6 is ****ing huge here