Rugby Abroad

themont85

Well I'm moving to the states next April and was wondering what people's experiences of playing club rugby abroad are. I haven't played in 2 to 3 years since an injury and am looking to get back in. What was the standard like in other countries? I have a few friends who play in London and love the scene there and a couple in Oz but apparently with league being the bigger fish its not quite the same.

Has anyone here played abroad and what was their opinion of it?

Luckycharm

I played in Sydney for a year with Drumoyne- I loved it there were loads of other irish there as well. What I liked best was that it was the whole club would take on the other club with the 5ths starting early in the morning, followed by the 4ths etc all the way up to the 1sts. The lower games were shorter but there was booze and a barbie going the whole day so it was good fun!!

shoutman

Hey Luckycharm, I'll be over in northern oz for June,July and August, currently playing J4 over here, wondering what the standard would be like? I'll probably be in cairns for the three months and the teams i came across only seem to have two teams?

Blisterman

Well, I was on a Rugby tour to China recently, and there's a few teams there. Mostly expats, but there were a few Chinese too.
The standard was quite reasonable. Their main complaint was having to play the same teams all the time.
There's teams in most major cities in America too. No idea what any of them are like though.

tallaghtoutlaws

themont85 wrote: »

Well I'm moving to the states next April and was wondering what people's experiences of playing club rugby abroad are. I haven't played in 2 to 3 years since an injury and am looking to get back in. What was the standard like in other countries? I have a few friends who play in London and love the scene there and a couple in Oz but apparently with league being the bigger fish its not quite the same.

Has anyone here played abroad and what was their opinion of it?

I played in a Rugby 7's in North Carolina against local clubs when I worked there. The guys I worked with were Australian Kiwis English Scottish and me the Paddy and our team had quality but some of the American teams were not bad and two of them gave us a run for our money but having said that it was 7's. The level in North Carolina is not too bad at all we watched a few local games and they were good to watch. I know a couple of the Aussie boys played with the local team last year and said it was very competitive league.

Serenity Now!

Played rugby union in Norway for a bit and rugby league in NSW. Norway was a good experience. Will never take off there for two reasons though: Its mainly an adult ex-pat game and its played in summer at the same time when soccer and cricket (there are twelve sides in Oslo alone) are in full swing.
Playing league in Aussie was flippin' brilliant. Only played mainly reserve grade in the Richmond (northern NSW country) junior leagues but it was very competitive. Wish I'd done it sooner.

Luckycharm

shoutman wrote: »

Hey Luckycharm, I'll be over in northern oz for June,July and August, currently playing J4 over here, wondering what the standard would be like? I'll probably be in cairns for the three months and the teams i came across only seem to have two teams?

I am not sure about Cairns- Rugby is mainly played in NSW and Queensland (brisbane) in OZ. Cairns is not that big a town with a high transient population I don't think too many tourists settle in Cairns as it is very hot as well so not sure how many teams they have. I have to say it was a town I really liked it reminded me of an American town with its block wide streets etc no real character. Also the ground will be quite hard so they tended to play running rugby with little emphasis on tight forward play which was great for me as a centre/winger!! Also you used to get alot of Pac Islanders who played who were often massive and quick so you had a great time bouncing off them
If you were a forward you had more chance of playing at a higher grade- there was a guy who played Prop here but would have only been a fringe first team player. Over there he represented NSW at Subbies level.

Dave Joyce

I go to the States every summer and from chatting to some of the guys, rugby is really taking off over there as once you don't make the draft in American football (which is the VAST majority of guys), there is no outlet for ex-players so they have now realised rugby is a great alternative.

Funnily enough, Tallaghtoutlaws, I met a guy of Scottish decent in Fort Bragg (in North Carolina) and he was mad into playing rugby and said there was quite an interest there in the game.