The most beautiful game in the world,  🇿🇦💪❤

You'll notice they only blur the bleeding for American TV.

To be fair, many new rules have been phased in to make rugby safer and it has made a huge difference.

My dad told me not to play rugby because it breaks your body later. He was right.... if I had to do it over, I would have started earlier.

Howzit Rez . Something you must take in consideration we start playing the game from pre school 5-6 years old  . No please we don't want pads.  Or rule changes.  I'm 50 now and carry those injuries with pride. Best game in the world!!! Go Bokke

NFL is Rugby the musical.

Hi there brother I love rugby 60 years old,play in school under 55 kg ,my blood is green (springbok)

To Wikipedia quote an infamous injury to the New Zealander, Buck Shelford when the All Blacks played France...

"Shelford was a notable victim of the infamous "Battle of Nantes" in the second Test. Roughly 20 minutes into the match, he was caught at the bottom of a rather aggressive ruck, and a French boot kicked his groin, ripping his scrotum and leaving one testicle hanging free. He also lost four teeth in the process. After discovering the injury to his scrotum, he calmly asked the physiotherapist to stitch up the tear and returned to the field before a blow to his head left him concussed."

Football/Soccer: played by gentlemen and watched by thugs

Rugby: played by thugs and watched by gentlemen

Rugby is Rugby. I played when the Ruck was a thing: you don't know fear until you're trapped underneath one and steel studded boots come hammering down upon your helpless body and face for what seems like an hour because you're on the wrong side of the ball. Right knee buggered, nose broken more times than I can remember, one tooth gone. Concussions?! No idea how many. And I was one of the lucky ones! I loved every moment of it. Still do. But then, this is South Africa.

16:24 his name is Patrick lambie i went to school with him, he was knocked out cold by an irish player jumping in the air and colliding with his head, it was such a loss for him and for the springboks because he might have still been playing today, he was a phenomenal number 10 and an incredible place kick taker

It is the pinnacle of men in sport.
The greatest game the British have ever invented

What I loved about playing was: as soon as that whistle blew it was like war just broke out! It was wild and crazy and I loved it!

A scrum has a compression force of 16000 Newtons (N)

Been playing since 5 and loved every second of it, 28 now cant play anymore due a knee injury. If it werent for that ill be lacing up my boots

8:12 Sure, I played Rugby for about 15 years, and i still wouldn't like a puck to hit me

The Ruck at 5:07 is basically the Rugby Union’s version of Trench Warfare.

Let rugby be rugby, I played in Hi-School, suffered about 12 concussions, played in the A-Team from the start and 2 x years of 1st team in South Africa back in the 90’s - I loved it, there is damage I can feel it today but wouldn’t change a thing.

You can’t easily explain it, it’s a fire inside of you, loyalty, brotherhood, blessed to have have played with the guys that I did, selected for what I was and what I needed to do.

Incredible sport that if you haven’t played in it, words won’t validate anything for those that haven’t, it’s quite simply going to war! and you’ll do anything to win and this may be asked of you, but it doesn’t need to be asked for, you’re already invested.

I played rugby from the ages of 7 to 21, and decades later I still miss it.

Concerning the pressure on players in the front row of scrums.I played one school season as a prop. it wasn't my decision and by the second season I was out of there playing centre, but I put evrything into it. At schoolboy level I got popped out of the scrum so that the other 15 in the scrum were pushing on me and I really thought my spine was going to snap!
Imagine the difference between that and two massive, hardened packs of forwards.

In my third last year of school rugby I had to transition for prop to lock due to a neck injury. In my second last year our first team was coached by the then current Natal (renamed the Sharks) prop and the front row was bigger (5kgs heavier) than that Natal front row. In one game, the opponents had to substitute their hooker for the second team hooker then for their under 15A hooker all for neck injuries. Too late the ref opted for uncontested scrums. All 3 kids left the pitch on spinal boards, but made full recoveries.

Rugby itself has fewer serious injuries than football (soccer) but the injuries are often life altering. The medical codes have been strengthened over time and now instead of just EMT's, professional teams like the Sharks have a specially trained Trauma Surgeon - his day job is a Professor of Medicine - at the stadium with a fully equipped ER. Minor procedures like stitching are done there on the spot and players often return to the game once the bleeding stops. Magic spray and adhesive bandages are the normal. Pulling that stuff off of an hairy arm or leg is not fun - why do ladies wax? But I did play with sprained ankles, broken fingers and pulled ligaments. And I played social rugby - not professional or school leagues. I played because I enjoyed it. The comradery, the adrenaline rush, and probably the endorphins too. And later I became a volunteer EMT for club rugby.

But the sport has changed in the professional era. Players now play nearly all year round so 40 games a year is more normal, training is 49 weeks of the year, 5 days a week.  It would be 15-20 games in the pre-professional era, and half of those games would be club games which are not played at the same intensity as a professional league. Players are bigger, fitter and stronger than before. But rule changes have also made the sport safer thankfully.