[Arpe]

For putting up a good showing in the Rugby test in the weekend against our All Blacks. The Canadian team only lost 64-13. 26 points to 13 at half time. While the score is large the Canadians kept their fighting spirit to the end and never gave up.
If you want to read about it try here or here.

[Donald]

what's rugby?

[Arpe]

A tough, physical game where the players don't wear padding or helmets, yet they still throw their bodies at each other. The clock doesn't stop every time the play stops and it's played all around the world. The Rugby World Cup is coming up soon in France.

Or if you're serious you can read about it here.

The All Blacks are the NZ national team and are generally regarded as the best in the world.

[little laker]

When I was in high school we played a little and everyone limped off the field all black and blue. It's a good game.

[Rick]

A tough, physical game where the players don't wear padding or helmets, yet they still throw their bodies at each other.

Oh right... rugby... that game the girls play when they can't find their field hockey sticks. They made us try it in high school to "broaden our horizons". Everybody cried "Bor-inngggg" and we went back to playing lacrosse.

Men play hockey... that game they started playing from the time their Canadian mom's send their little boys out to play equipped with two razor sharp blades and a four foot long club. Played on rock hard ice, surrounded by good solid boards and glass, not soft cushy grass. Where players crunch into each other and into the boards at speeds about three times as fast as the quickest rugby player can lumber along.

In short, in Canada rugby is the game that those not good enough and tough enough to play hockey are allowed to amuse themselves with.

It seems you are trying to breed a strain of New Zealanders tough enough to play hockey, though. I went looking for results and it appears you have yet to drum up anything good enough to play on the same ice as our national teams.

Tell you what, though - we might be able to get the National Women's Team to give your men's Ice Blacks a game if they come on over... don't expect to see New Zealand's men's ice hockey team ever attempt the ice with any of Canada's world championship teams anywheres in this lifetime.

Rugby... sheesh... next thing you know they'll be trying to sell golf as a tough sport...

[Arpe]

excellent - very funny.

[Falcons]

It seems you are trying to breed a strain of New Zealanders tough enough to play hockey, though. I went looking for results and it appears you have yet to drum up anything good enough to play on the same ice as our national teams.

Have you actually seen the New Zealand Rugby team?

Man, you could put your hockey team on the ice, full padding and their sticks, up against the new Zealand Rugby Team and I can tell you now your Canadian boys will come off second best and I wont tell you exactly where that puck will end up.

The only thing tougher than the New Zealand Rugby team is the Aussie ladies bowls team and of course my Grandmothers boots.

[Kaimarx]

Heh, you need to jump on Youtube and look up Rugby! Check this out...

YouTube - Rugby tackles

i dare you to come back and say Rugby (or its cousin Rugby League) isnt tough!! Its one of the toughest sports in the world, period.

Check it out at 2:39 thats canada vs tonga......brutal. Hats off to the warriors who put their bodies on the line in the world of rugby.

[Rick]

Have you actually seen the New Zealand Rugby team?

Yes I have, actually; CBC shows assorted other sports when there's no hockey. For Canadians, they're mostly memorable for their Haka, however, not for how interesting their game is.

On the other hand, clearly you've never watched national caliber Canadian hockey teams, much less played hockey at any advanced level - as I have and probably as a few other Canucks and Americans here have as well. The fact that few high caliber hockey players have all their teeth, that most have had surgery at least once or twice for hockey injuries, and that there are numerous deaths each year in Canada from hockey injuries may also have escaped your notice.

You guys need to get off those dinky little islands more often - there's a big new world out there!

Man, you could put your hockey team on the ice, full padding and their sticks, up against the new Zealand Rugby Team and I can tell you now your Canadian boys will come off second best and I wont tell you exactly where that puck will end up.

Now I KNOW you've never seen much in the way of ice hockey. Simply moving on the ice requires an entirely new skill set, unlike moving around on grass; they would have all the elan and grace of a pig on crutches making its' way across a greased floor.

Assuming they could actually manage to stand up momentarily, it would be most enlightening to see them attempt any of what you visualize with hockey players like George Larrocque or Chris Pronger. You have to fight and battle your way through the junior leagues to get into the bigs, and you have to fight and battle once you get there to survive. That aside, I won't speculate on any connection between NZ, sheep and your preoccupation with where NZ rugby players would like to put pucks.

So there we have it: Canadian rugby players can at least take the field with your rugby team, but NZ hockey players have yet to get good enough and tough enough to step on the ice with Canadian national teams - which generally aren't the best of our best anyways, incidentally.

As I said, send 'em over and we'll let them play the girls. Once they can eke out a win over the girls (watch out for Hayley Wickenhauser, she isn't the first woman tough enough to play pro hockey on a men's team), then we'll let em try out the boys on some of the major junior teams. But as I said, I don't expect to see any NZ men's ice hockey teams taking to the ice against Canadian (or US) national ice hockey teams anytime in this life.

The only thing tougher than the New Zealand Rugby team is the Aussie ladies bowls team and of course my Grandmothers boots.

Well, I suppose I can't argue with that. Maybe you should send them instead!

[Rick]

Heh, you need to jump on Youtube and look up Rugby! Check this out...

YouTube - Rugby tackles

i dare you to come back and say Rugby (or its cousin Rugby League) isnt tough!! Its one of the toughest sports in the world, period.

I don't know much about YouTube, but it isn't hard to find hockey footage.

YouTube - Hockey Hits

Please note that unlike the rugby footage, the video isn't made up mostly of dancing and posturing, or Haka'ing, or whatever it's called. Just hits. Not even the fighting and stickwork that goes on.

You might note in passing that national level players can hit speeds of 40 mph; So visualize two people running into each other, each going about 35 mph. Combined speed, 70 mph.

The "padding"? Oh, the padding: there's also a frozen 6 oz. object being blasted around through the air of speeds of up to 110 mph... and part of playing hockey is being willing to throw yourself in front of those shots to prevent them getting to the net. That "padding" by the way has an exterior surface of rock hard fiberglass or plastic - it doesn't make whoever is checking you any softer when you collide.

Now ask yourself what the fastest combined speed of two rugby players, not covered in hard fiberglass and plastic, can be. If Olympic sprinters in one brief effort can hit speeds of 23 mph, let's be charitable and say rugby players running on the field can manage to put on bursts of 18 -19 mph. So a combined speed that is over 30 mph slower than a hockey hit. And you think the two are comparable?

By the way, speaking of tough sports and going to the internet, everyone loves a top ten list:
Top Ten Most Dangerous Sports

Ice hockey is second behind rodeo bull riding (another sport originating in Canada and best known for the Calgary Stampede - which I briefly did in the summer during my young foolish years). Rugby manages fifth...

I think that about says it all. However, just for giggles, put on some "padding" jump in the back of your buddies truck, have him drive by the edge of a building at 35 mph, and then jump out of the truck so you hit the wall. Now you know what being driven into the boards feels like - and you didn't have 250 lbs of opposing hockey player behind you trying to drive you THROUGH the boards when you did it.

End of story.

[pixelpruner]

NZ and australia are the best? Forgetting about the world champions (England)? That's assuming you're talking about proper rugby (union).

[Rick]

NZ and australia are the best? Forgetting about the world champions (England)? That's assuming you're talking about proper rugby (union).

Shhhhhh... you'll wake up the ANZACs. They might even discover that their rugby is rated below rugby union... then we'd really have a hue and cry...

[Falcons]

Whoa there Rick - Don't confuse me with a kiwi I'm an Aussie.

Now Aussie Rules football poops all over the lot of you hockey and rugby players for toughness.

Now seriously till your hockey players go out there put it on the line with out 2 tonnes of padding and helmets you can only refer to them as wimps.

But i bet they enjoy that puck!

[Arpe]

NZ and australia are the best? Forgetting about the world champions (England)? That's assuming you're talking about proper rugby (union).

Er.... I think you're forgetting about what's happened SINCE the world cup...

[Donald]

well this is confusing. So, rugby is hockey but the guys are bigger and they play with black bowls? Fruit bowls or soup bowls?

Just asking.