There are other sports in the world, aside from football. Football is extremely popular here in the US, but outside the US there are other games that are more universal. These sports require less cost in general to play and are more global and inclusive. Soccer is number one, it is so simple to play and is played everywhere, rugby is on that list too, it could be the second most popular sport behind soccer outside the US.
And this April brings the inaugural match of the inaugural season of PRO Rugby North America. There is a PRO Rugby North America team in San Diego for people to support, and in light of the fact that pro football is consuming itself and teams trying to get to LA it might be a good way for this sport to gain popularity as well as the new team in San Diego to attract new fans.
Rugby has 80 minute of play, two halves, and continuous play time. Rather than the 11 minutes of actual play time in football, with commercial breaks to force unwanted advertising on you at every break in the game possible. Rugby is a nonstop play type of sport and they played the game without stopping every few moments as is what happens in its american counterpart. It is very interesting to watch, and it never got boring.
Here at mesa there is also a bit of rugby to be had. The Point Loma Nazarene University’s (PLNU) team played Whittier College’s team on Saturday Feb 20th at Mesa College’s football and soccer field. Overcoming the fact that there are few actual rugby fields. They played and adapted the field lines to suit their needs.
In the PLNU huddles they talked about how Whittier team had a lot of football players on it, and because of this PLNU was faced with a team that played rugby with some inspiration from football tackles.
When asked about how he felt scoring the tri, Riley Cannon of PLNU says “Pretty freaking good,” and by scoring the tri when he did he said, “in that situation it felt good because it closed the game out in a way,” and it ensured PLNU’s win and spot in the playoffs.