Why hasnt anyone put a rugby player on the gridiron or vica vica if nuthing else u could have the most punter?

Question

i meen rugby players tend to pe a little leaner (not many 300lb) rugby players but most of um can kick and they can all punt, or find some collage kid who didnt get drafted and teach him rugby (u cant tell me theres not a fb, or tail back somewere who had the speed and size to cross over, it seems to me both sports could mutally feed from each other rugby in the summer football in the winter whut a beutifull world it would b

Answer 1

thats wat i do

Answer 2

officials in both sports would surely be very much the crossing over of players from one sport to another, also there is little incentive for a player to cross over, unless has been mentioned in other answers they fail to make thew grade in their particular sport.

here in ireland we have a similar example, one of our national sports Gaelic Football is quite similar to Aussie rules, as the sport is professional in Australia and not here there is massive financial incentive for the Irish players to go over a try converting to the Aussie game. While a small enough number have tried the conversion an even smaller number have done so succesfully, Tadgh Kennelly who won a Flag with Sydney Swans in 2005 is probably the best example, however he did leave Ireland at the age of 19.

Answer 3

A few kickers have gone over to American football.

But never for long, even if their rugby careers are over they find it too dull.

Not knocking American football as a sport at all.

But if you're just coming on to punt a ball it's not exactly fun

Answer 4

Naas Botha, one of the greatest fly halves of all time, played for the Dallas Cowboys (as a kicker) while South Africa were isolated due to apartheid.

Gavin Hastings played for the Scottish Claymores in the European Football League and plenty of the samoans currently playing in the NFL started their careers as rugby players back home.

Agreed, the link is not as exploited as it could or should be but I think that in future, gridiron will supply many of the US Eagles' rugby players by default - already many of the people playing sevens for the USA are former football players who missed the cut or had their careers nipped in the bud due to injuries that may not have been career threatening as such in terms of performance but rendered them poor investments for big teams in the NFL. I think this will increase dramatically now that Nigel Melville is in charge of rugby in the USA. He's got an excellent rugby brain and England, reigning world champions, wanted him but he turned down the opportunity to do the job in America on less money because the prospect was so exciting.

Traditional rugby playing nations should start to beware... I think that the 2015 rugby world cup will see a world class US outfit, possibly even 2011.

Answer 5

It would be interesting to see if a gridiron player could develope the full skill set to be a genuine world class rugby union player. They could probably make good wingers (where strength, running routes and speed are the main prerequisite), but even great rugby league players often struggle to make it as forwards or half backs at the highest level of Union.

Don't underestimate the disadvantage of not growing up learning to think like a Rugby player, and learning the intricacies of a very complex game.

Answer 6

The punter for the Chargers isa Rugger...and the best tackling kicker in the history of football