Do have a question for you Conrad. I watched a BBC3 program a few years ago talking about obesity, and it highlighted that in the meat heavy diet of Argentina, that the poorer classes had worse diets due to only having access to worse cuts of meat and vegetables being too expensive, therefore making the upper class much healthier than them. How true is this, and does it play a factor in the rugby scene?
100% true, is what I said in the thread. Rugby is a much more demanding sport than football, then you need better nutrition for play rugby than for play football. Here there is too difference between social classes, the upper middle class have a better diet than the working class, then the kids from the upper middle class are stronger and healthier than kids from working class. For this reason, the best rugby players in Argentina come from the upper middle class, not from the working class, that's real.
Football supporters don't want to admit that this is true. They are ignorant and often don't realize that professional rugby players weigh over 100 kg with a low percentage of fat, while the best international football players are dwarfs than 60 kg like Messi or Neymar.
Here, Football supporters never played rugby then they think there isn't much difference in physical condition between a professional rugby player and a professional football player, when that isn't so. No professional football player weighs more than 100 kg, most weigh between 60 and 75 kg, if a professional football player weighs 90 kg is considered too heavy for football. While in rugby, most players should weigh more 100 kg, for example the forwards usually weigh over 110 kg and the backs weigh between 95-105 kg. So rugby is a sport that demands greater fitness and more nutrition than football.
In Argentina we don't have the genetics of other countries such as Jamaica. They are a poor country, however they have good performances in hard sports like athletics because they have good genetics. In rugby we have the case of Pacific Islanders: Samoa, Fiji and Tonga are small islands with few resources but they have very good genetics, so many "monsters" like Lomu and Tuilagi's brothers come from those islands.
Teenagers from Argentina's upper middle class:
Teenager from Argentina's working class:
Teenagers from the Argentina's upper middle class are stronger, they look like Europeans. While teens from the Argentina's working class are smaller, weaker. They couldn't play rugby, they only can play football.
Now do you understand the situation with regard to rugby in my country? It isn't a question of racial discrimination or something. It's just a reality, kids from the upper middle class are more suitable for rugby and the kids from working class are better suited for football.
Football supporters refuse to acknowledge this, they say that if the rugby was the sport of the working class here, Argentina would be better than NZ, Australia and SA together, but those are nonsense from people who have never played rugby. People who were never involved in a rucking, who never pushed into a mauling, who never experienced a spear tackle. They don't know all the pain you have to endure a rugby player.
Like a rugby coach I had said. "Rugby isn't painful if you watch it for TV. If you look from the stadium with the crowd, then it's three times more painful than through TV because you see the hits closely and if you're on the field of play, rugby is 10 times more painful than through TV". And he's right , football supporters think that rugby is a sport like handball, you just have to pass the ball and get to the ingoal. Foolishness, rugby is a tough sport.
Rugby = Blow after blow after blow after blow.
Rugby = Injury after injury after injury after injury.
And not many can withstand the harshness of our sport, especially football players.
Cheers
The Aussies are desperate for a World Cup in Oz (should have got it in 2022)..I'd have definitely planned to go to that one...likelihood for Oz is 2026 or 2030.
