@Mxyzptik, do you think that a rugby product such as viva 7's could flourish in the USA?
http://www.rugby.com.au/News/NewsAr...7s-to-launch-in-Regional-New-South-Wales.aspx
Huh. My first reaction is hell yes, especially at universities and with community centers that organize adult sports leagues. There'd be the initial novelty, plus it'd ride on Olympic notoriety. My second reaction is it would have to start in places where rugby and 7s is already known -- the coasts -- and move from there.
But I think it could be introduced more easily
if the organizers worked with/through the same groups that organize things like flag football leagues, because American football seems to be the way rugby is making itself known here. Lately the press here is pushing some of the current USA 7s players American football backgrounds, and having current NFL players talking about their own rugby backgrounds. So rugby is already using American football as a vector to introduce themselves to the public.
Flag football is played as a just-for-fun organized sport at universities, by kids everywhere and adults in larger cities, by police and fire departments and military, etc. But I know even flag football can get a little rough (a cop I know blew a knee and got concussed playing flag football), and I don't know if it's as welcoming of mixed-sex teams. And it's American football, so there's a lot of start-stop, and the sport's really not going to get you in great condition unless you're a receiver or a back (I don't think you play flag football to really build fitness). So if it was introduced to the public through the same organizations that set up flag football competitions, especially as a way to get fit, sure.
Plus this is something I bet a lot of parents wouldn't mind seeing their kids do over American football or soccer. Football still trumps soccer in this country; there's still some resistance to soccer because it seems aimless to a lot of American eyes (although that's changing). But more and more parents are wary of letting their kids participate in something that, by junior high, becomes a regular series slow-speed car crashes. Something like viva 7s incorporates all the running that the soccer moms want their runts doing before dinner, and is close enough to American football that those parents would understand it more intuitively. And again, Olympic distinction.
Those are my thoughts on it. USARugger might be a better person to ask, because he's more involved with rugby circles around here.
But man, I'd play, and I'm getting old.
