This spring has seen some important steps forward in the general acceptance of rugby, especially at the youth level.

There are little insidious things, such as the Mitsubishi commercial with the rowdy kids playing a rugby game (and one kid having his mom remind him about his mouthguard). Those tiny pop-culture references can have long-lasting effects.

There are the more obvious things, such as the Seattle Seahawks making their video about tackling that specifically mentioned and discussed rugby techniques. This approach has helped mainstream rugby in the USA as more than just a brutal sport where the players don’t wear pads, and brought it to the forefront of safety in contact sports - where it should be. Rugby has long had better concussion protocols than other contact sports, and the sport’s tackling techniques have made it clear to all, now, that maybe there’s something to be learned from all of that.

That’s why you see articles like this one in Sports Illustrated for Kids, talking about how tackling safely is a rugby thing.

Personally, not only do I agree tat football coaches can learn from rugby, I believe that young kids should be playing rugby, not football. They can graduate to football, but rugby, with its all-skills-all-players approach, and its approach to teaching safety and good technique first, can make better football players.

In short, we seem to be doing a good job. All of those coaches who decided to coach young kids should be applauded. It’s good work they are doing, and the benefits are for more than just rugby. I think youth rugby will help football, and maybe some more important things, as well.

A recent article in Collegead.com asked if college athletic departments invested in the wrong sport - lacrosse over rugby - because college lacrosse, after a bit of a fad growth spurt, has seen attendance and interest drop off. Rugby’s solid growth as a participation and a spectator sport has write Francis Giknis wondering if maybe that’s the college sport of the future. 

I would agree that rugby has staying power as a spectator and participation sport - we all know the reasons (it’s fun, the teamwork is like nothing you experience in other games, and the respect-your-opponent tradition is unrivaled). 

This article sparked a little discussion on social media after it was posted by Dan Lyle of United World Sports (and former USA MNT captain).

Replying to Lyle’s post was Hywel Ap Rees, who is a former national champion coach on the men’s club level and a successful businessman.

“As a rugby lover with a 12 yr old daughter who is an accomplished lacrosse goalie (and soccer goalie plus basketball player) I've realized that the problem is not in making the wrong choices between sports, it's failing to give the kids the opportunity to play as many sports as possible so they can choose for themselves. Urban Meyer talks about only recruiting 2 sport athletes; however regional organizations make it more and more difficult for kids to play different sports. They compete with each other instead of working together. Lacrosse (about which I know nothing) and rugby (about which the older norcal refs will tell you I think I know everything....) are the two fastest growing sports amongst kids. We need to find a way to channel and share this enthusiasm and growth to ensure that the sports are not mutually exclusive. USA rugby is on a high because the players have been playing our game since they were kids. That is the key to success. Danville Oaks started a few years ago and is now the blueprint for a youth club. I guarantee at least one of their kids, male or female, will be a contender for the US World Cup team in 2018 in the Bay Area.We have the game. We have the story. We have the goal. We need the sponsors and the money. Kids sports are expensive. Club sports are expensive. Get the sponsors and make rugby a financially attractive option to families.”

What resonated with me in this comment is the idea that you can’t worry about other sports. While using rugby to help football be safer is nice, rugby is not football, and shouldn’t be thought of as football. Rugby is not soccer. The years and energy spent lamenting the growth of lacrosse, a sport with a rich tradition in North America, was a waste of time in my humble opinion. Let the lacrosse baby have its bottle; we’ll just keep teaching kids to play rugby, and eventually the truth (as Ap Rees said, “we have the story”) will out. Rugby is fun, not expensive to play, and helps you be good at a bunch of other sports.

But, also, other sports are OK, too. I feel lucky to have played and been coached in rugby, soccer, football, baseball, cricket, water polo, track, skiing, basketball (at which I was terrible), swimming, and squash. All of those sports have been useful and enjoyable to me. And what I hope is that we keep supporting the efforts to coach kids in rugby and share the love of the game, without spreading hate about other sports (even the stupid ones), because we don't need that.

I could spend a bunch of time running down lacrosse as a sport and then apologizing for it, or I can just go back to saying this - play rugby and see if you like it. There’s a good chance you will. Do you have a kid who wants to play football? Let her play rugby. Let him start with rugby. He’ll learn how to tackle without putting his head and neck in danger, and then you can move on to football if you want.

That’s what I imagine that kid in the Mitsubishi ad doing.