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German Rugby makes a big step

In October the normal season is running with matches every weekend.
Also there are often invitational tournaments around Munichs Oktoberfest.
 
Its funny because you sit there in Irish bars or English pubs abroad in Scandinavia and Germany watching the rugby and a family native to the country you are visiting, be it Denmark, Norway or Germany come in and see what is on the television.

They look at it for a long while, looking quite bemused at the whole spectical and at how popular it is (especially if its a big international at Twickenham) before asking "is this..rugby?"

"Yes, it is!" I smile before looking back "great, isn't it? Why haven't you chaps started playing?"

At this point, the usual reaction is to laugh that squeamish laugh that people make to sound polite while really being embarrased and unsure "oh! no no no! We couldn't possibly play, we like football and handball here..." [/b]



Sweden has some big, tall, hard-drinking sons-of-guns - they usually go into ice hockey, wrestling, athletics or weightlifting - some of those could easily slot into rugby.



Would be great to have Sweden on the autumn test lineup - a daunting trip to the far north for the Wallabies with a foot of snow on the pitch! Or imagine the charged atmosphere of a Germany - England rugby international at Twickenham...things would boil over!
 
Yeah, I'm not saying that the likes of Scandinavia or Central Europe don't have the kinds of people cut out to play rugby. In fact nations from Swizerland to Finland have a fine, fine Hockey pedigree and have supplied some legends to the NHL in the past.

Its just a case of changing perceptions, trying to get people over there to accept Rugby and take an interest in it rather than going into their football/hockey/hand ball shells...

I don't think an England - Germany match would be as highly charged as Le Crunch against France or a match against Australia. We've been playing France and Australia for far longer.
 
perception is definitely a part of it - the concept of rugby takes some time getting used to and getting people out on the park...the human body is stronger with the right attitude than many think.

In some ways, though - I wouldn't be entirely disatisfied in these countries with the solid amateur rugby foundations that have been laid - even Sweden has quite a few clubs 80? for a small country with 8 million people, some very decent tournaments during the summer, especially 10s and 7s - and has been playing rugby since the 1930s.

Countries like Germany, Sweden and the U.S. might not get to the first-class or professional level within another 50 years or ever, but the rugby communities in these countries are great.

At my club here in the U.S. - we gather for all the big games (Six Nations, World Cup, Super 14) at the pub, many of us like myself don't need the ethnic, cultural connection to passionately watch a match.

The thing that I really only miss out on is being at a live match in the stands in a big stadium - but, hell I hardly ever go to NHL games and I've never been to an NFL game ($90 for a "cheap" seat!)
 
My school's 6 form does a trip every year to Berlin, and they go to a school somewhere in Berlin
(not sure what it's called) that's nuts about rugby. From what I;ve heard, Germany's age grade sides ( as in u16's - u18's) are usually made up from students of this school. And, two years ago one of the Six Formers told me that when they got to the school, a match between the full German National Side against like a Welsh 6th side (think it's called the 'Wales Clubs XV - so players from very low division clubs like Barry RFC and Penarth RFC) was being held on the schools pitch. I think the Germans won as well.
 
I know that the German Federal Police always had a Rugby Team which took on the British Army at Bremen where the British Army of the Rhine was based.
 
Noice...

there are some pretty established rugby clubs in Germany and Berlin being the metropolis that it is - has some of these clubs that were founded in the 1900s...Heidelberg and Hannover are the other rugby "hotbeds." In the 1930s, Germany was better than Italy and beat France twice.

I hope Germany can stay up in the ENC - however they'll be playing some quality teams with past or recent WC experience - Romania, Spain, Portugal, Georgia.

You'd think there would be more resources for the game in an economy of its size? A very sports saturated market however.
 
Just a brief history of my club , the RC Stuttgart, to show you how established Rugby is in Germany!

The first Clubs were founded in the 1860s and since 1894 we have a Rugby-Club in Town
In 1890 there was an attempt in Württemberg to introduce Rugby in to the armed forces and for some years the garrisons in Stuttgart and Tübingen played Rugby as Armysport.
In 1941 the SRC hosted the Testmatch between Germany and Italy in Front of 37.000 spectators !

Rugby became a bad name in the boilup of WW1 when it got the illfated label as a english"snob"sport!
In contrary, Rugby sutied very well into the nationalsocialist Sportseducation!

Anyway, we looking for a new coach, we play 2.Bundesliga South Division.

Applicants welcome

 
Good on Germany....I did use them once when I used to play JLR. Some of those powerful European countries could really be rugby world powers if they got into it....such a waste.
 
It seriously is a shame that Germany isn't more into Rugby... I actually think it suits the culture way more than Soccer does to be honest and I think they'd be bloody tough in the forwards (having a similar heritage to the South Africans). In fact it's a shame more of Europe in general isn't more into Rugby really, cause there are a few countries that would be bloody good at it.
If it wasn't for that bloody soccer...
 
It seriously is a shame that Germany isn't more into Rugby... I actually think it suits the culture way more than Soccer does to be honest and I think they'd be bloody tough in the forwards (having a similar heritage to the South Africans). In fact it's a shame more of Europe in general isn't more into Rugby really, cause there are a few countries that would be bloody good at it.
If it wasn't for that bloody soccer... [/b]

SA heritage is not German as far as I know but rather Dutch, English and somewhat French (thanks to Louis XIV and its policy regarding the Huguenots) regarding the European part.
 
Yes, but I thought a fair bit of Germany had similar blood lines to the dutch? And isn't there a lot of German blood in England anyway?
 
Yes, but I thought a fair bit of Germany had similar blood lines to the dutch? And isn't there a lot of German blood in England anyway? [/b]

There's some proximity but Europe nations are far from being ethnicaly uniform and this is not new. Former german people mixed a lot with Slavic, French and Spanish so you can forget about pure aryans... Same for the Dutch, they were ruled by the French and next by the Spanish during many centuries before being independent, when then people from al Europe emigrated over there...
 
SA heritage is not German as far as I know but rather Dutch, English and somewhat French (thanks to Louis XIV and its policy regarding the Huguenots) regarding the European part.
[/b]



there's actually quite a bit of German heritage in South Africa - some of the big Afrikaner family names one finds frequently in rugby - Rautenbach, Botha, Marais, Scholtz, Hofmeyr, Badenhorst, Reinecke are definitely German in origin.



One has to also realize that in the Netherlands / North Germany during the time of the first wave of immigration to South Africa (1600s) there was also alot of crossover between the Dutch and Germans into each others countries. My ancestral family was originally Dutch, but moved to Germany in the 15th Century.
 
Congratulations, but Germany will have difficulties to remain in the Firs Division. You know, it's easy to win, but is hard to mentain you the best.
 
great more northern hemisphere teams coming through. we can gang up against the winging aussies and there crap new laws
 
Yes, but I thought a fair bit of Germany had similar blood lines to the dutch? And isn't there a lot of German blood in England anyway? [/b]

Most of the German blood in the UK comes from the Saxons and the Angles, hence the name Anglo-Saxon.

The main influences on the British peoples were firstly from the Celts, then the Romans (although, surprisingly, their impact away from that of culture was negligeble) and then a myriad of tribes from what is now Northern Germany, Denmark and Scandinavia. These tribes were the Saxons (from what is now Saxony), the Angles (from what is now Schleswig-Holstein, the Jutes (from, believe it or not, Jutland) and some Scandinavian tribes.

All three tribes have had a tremendous amount of influence on the British Isles as we know them today. East Anglia was the name given to the lands ruled by the Angles. Essex was the name given to the land ruled by the Eastern Saxons, Middlesex given to the Middle Saxons, Sussex to the Southern Saxons and Wessex for the Western Saxons.

Northern England tends to have more influence from that of the Danelaw or the lands ruled just north of what is now Northampton by the Scandinavian kingdoms. See, not even the f***ing Vikings like Northampton!

Ironically, Saxon blood dominates practically most areas of the UK and even some small areas of Ireland. And that is even before you take into account the Norman influence in Ireland too (i.e. the so called "Old English" in the South Coast of Ireland) In a recent test, they found that Saxon lineage dominates the population of England and Scotland up to the traditionally celtic heartlands of the highlands.

The clues as to the heritage of a particular area of the UK are everywhere. Just look for the town and village names, area names, names of rivers, etc. The naming conventions are subtly different per area. For example, in the county of Suffolk you have village names such as Occold, Rishangles and Redlingfield are formed from words which were usually spoken by people of the Angle or Saxon tribes.

However, head north to counties like Yorkshire and Northumbria and the names change drastically in places to a more Scandinavian style like Scremerston, East Ord and Fenwick. A similar story appears across the East Coast of Scotland although, considering that Scotland could be considered part of Scandinavia anyway, you could let them off for that.
 
I think rugby struggles to find popularity in mainland Europe for the reason that there are simply too many sports and rugby is definitely in the minority.

If you look at the top 3 played team sports in Europe, they will be Soccer, Basketball and Handball, closely followed by Volleyball. As a result in england where we are dominated by the soccer tradition, we don't play those sports in our schools, but we do play rugby and cricket.

No-one in Europe plays our cricket.

For example, lets pick Lithuania. Not terribly great at soccer although theyw as part of the USSR, but amazing at basketball. They could probably be very good at rugby too, as every country has the talent to contribute players to all sports.

In the UK we don't play sports like Volleyball or Handball, but they are excellent sports if they were introduced to our schools. Any school child from Europe will know how to play these sports.

The UK has a completely different sports ethic to other major european nations like Italy, Germany, Russia, Sweden, France and Spain, who play every team sport and are very successful at most of them.

So in conclusion, Rugby in Germany is just a forgotten sport that has been far overtaken by non-contact sports like volleyball and handball.

It needs a major revival, and possibly a player(s) to really make headlines and sign in Top14 or Guinness Premiership, rather like a Dirk Nowitzki has done for Germany in the NBA.
 
You've completely missed out Hockey. I honestly cannot believe you've missed out Ice Hockey.

A man in Lithuania would kick your ass and wouldn't give two craps about your Rugby heritage if you didn't mention at least once how many times they've beaten Russia at Ice Hockey.

The reason why we play Rugby and Cricket and they don't is because Rugby and Cricket were the sports of the establishment, the up and coming middle classes and the military. You'll notice that the major Rugby and Cricketing nations are either Commonwealth nations or nations which have a heavy British influence or partnership in the past.

Argentina for example, became hooked on rugby through a mixture of Welsh and English immigration and through regular visits by British Army and Royal Navy teams throughout the late 19th century and 20th century. Uruguay also caught the rugby bug this way.
 
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