Who Farted On Bob Costas' Pillow? - #11

its a very nice sign

I'm glad someone likes it. Tyler said he liked it so much he'd give me money. Then he didn't give me money

That was me. Biggest problem was trying to explain stuff to Americans and put it in words they can understand. What exactly did I even get wrong though?

you just seemingly dont really know much about union. Also you said that rugby union is like soccer in the US. So Australians only care about it when the world cup comes around. That is not true whatsoever

But it is true? I said it has a following which is definitely true, just like soccer has a following in the US but when you compare it to sports like AFL and League as far as popularity at the club level it just doesnt compete ( This does not include its popularity in England ). However when the World Cup comes around suddenly everybody is a Union supporter and follows their progress. This is EXACTLY what happens in the US with soccer which is what I was comparing it to. Granted this all based on my experience living just about everywhere in NSW and I guess it may apply differently to other areas.

Also as far as my knowledge goes, once again its simply trying to put it in terms they can understand. I can go crazy in depth on what a scrum or ruck is but its not going to be a very entertaining 20 minute conversation. I also wasn't a 'Rugby Correspondent' so much as I was an Australian Correspondent giving them some insight from this side of the world.

I love feedback in anything I do though so thanks for taking the time to share mate.

I know a lot of people in Australia rugby union (internationals especially) are a big deal in Australia. I agree at a club level that league is more popular than union, but not compared to union internationals

That was me. Said the same thing below but the main thing was putting it in words Americans can understand, but what exaclty did I get wrong? Im more of a League guy myself but did my best to explain what was going on haha

I am a rugby league fan too (I'm a NZ warriors fan so I know my fair share of disappointment) and I do agree with you league is far easier for the Americans to understand with it having set plays etc.

But in regards to the whole Rugby World Cup, i think it was a bigger deal than you made it out to be. England put on fantastic tournament with some truly awesome moments like Japan vs South Africa, the debut of Nehe Milner-Skudder, Sonny Bill giving his medal away, the anthems before England v Wales.

And maybe it's just my personal experience giving bias to my view, I do think Australia were heavily invested in the World Cup just like they are with the Bledisloe cup and The Rugby Championship. Much like New Zealand, Australia a very passionate about their sport maybe not as much as Cricket or AFL but fans are certainly there.

Even though Australia didn't win they still put on a fantastic performance during the tournament, just look at David Pocock, 57 tackles, 40 carries, 17 turnovers and three tries, all in only five matches! He would've been very close to player of the tournament if Dan Carter hadn't put on that masterclass in the final.You had a great platform to expand the views of the SportsBall audience, and to say that Australia doesn’t particular care about the World Cup, or that league is better etc doesn’t particularly represent the sport very well.

And I don't think it's just you, I always get excited when I see Rugby in the video description but then we only get a minute on it, which is fair enough they are not experts on the sport so it is an improvement they did get you on to talk about it.

You have to remember I only had a short time frame to get any points across.. I wanted to touch on things like how Rugby Union has a unique level of respect between players, refs, opponents etc. I mean look at Stephen Moores post game interview, all he kept saying was how great NZ was and how they deserved to win. I wanted to touch on all that sorta stuff but there just isnt enough time.

Also when I spoke about how big of a deal it was ( Ill copy and paste this from a comment below ) I said it has a following which is definitely true, just like soccer has a following in the US but when you compare it to sports like AFL and League as far as popularity at the club level it just doesnt compete ( This does not include its popularity in England ). However when the World Cup comes around suddenly everybody is a Union supporter and follows their progress. This is EXACTLY what happens in the US with soccer which is what I was comparing it to. Granted this all based on my experience living just about everywhere in NSW and I guess it may apply differently to other areas.

So there is a lot of passionate supporters and the World Cup is a HUGE deal in Australia and around the world but strictly speaking from my experience the World Cup is the only time 90% of the people I know watch Union.

It can suck that they don't expand on the sports you love which is exactly why they want to start getting correspondants like myself on and with time hopefully ittl mean everything can be expanded upon and everybody can learn more and more.

I get that you had a short time to get many points across in way that way for Americans can understand. But it was such a missed opportunity to convey how exciting and how global the game is rather than very flippant about the whole thing. In the world, Australia is known as one of the top rugby nations and to say they only care about rugby during the world cup is giving the sport such a disservice.

It would be so awesome to see Rugby grow in the states (I understand that this doesn’t rest squarely on your shoulders). USA are actually a decent rugby team, sure they are not on the same level as the All Blacks, South Africa, Aussie etc but encouraging more people to participate in the sport can only have positive effects.

Look at what Jarrod Hayne is doing for NFL in Aussie and NZ, a lot of people are now starting to pay attention to it because what he is doing. It would be amazing if Rugby in the US would get the kind of attention.

As I said in other comments here what exactly did I get wrong? Everyone keeps telling me im wrong about the majority of Australia not caring about Union until the World Cup comes around but its simply the truth. I think people keep expecting there to be like a 30 minute segment where I could go into crazy detail about everything but it was like 3 minute long.. what exactly did you want out of it haha

I definitely wasn't, because their actual correspondent is one of my favourite gamers on youtube