A List of Differences Between Football and Rugby

Developing from the sport of rugby in the 1870s, American football obviously shares a great deal of commonalities with rugby. The two sports, however, are markedly different in many ways with professional football having grown into one of America's premier sports. Rugby is still played at a college and international level in the U.S. but professional football is by far the more popular of the two sports.

  1. Playing Field Size

    • The playing fields for both rugby and pro football are similar in design, although the rugby field is a little larger. The playing area of a rugby field is 109 yards in length and 76 yards wide, compared to 100 by 53 yards for football. Both sports have two try or end zone areas, which are at either end of the playing field. The dimensions for these areas are 23 yards long in rugby, compared to 10 yards on the football field with the same respective widths.

    Moving the Ball

    • In both sports the game ball is predominantly carried with hand to hand passes allowed. In rugby, the ball can only be passed to a player directly beside or behind the passer as they run with the ball. In pro football, the ball can be passed in any direction by an offensive player as long as they are behind the line of scrimmage. Rugby is a continuous running game with the ball being released upon successful tackle to be picked up by preferably a teammate who will continue the run. Once tackled in pro football, the players have to reset for a new scrimmage known as a down.

    Attire

    • Rugby and pro football are both heavy-hitting games with highly physical tackles. In pro football, the players wear heavy protective pads and helmets to protect against heavy tackles. These tackles tend to be more aggressive than those in the rugby game as preventing yardage gain is crucial to the defensive players. The players in rugby tend not to wear any padding except for maybe soft shoulder pads. Rugby tackles center more around wrapping up the legs and bringing the player down in a less aggressive manner.

    Scoring

    • The main aim in both sports is to carry the ball over the scoring line into the try area for rugby or end zone for football. In rugby, the ball must be touched down under the control of the hand; this scores five points. In football, the ball need only be carried or passed to a player into the end zone to score six points. Once a try or touchdown is scored, the scoring team gets to attempt a kick for extra points. These kicking conversions must pass through the uprights of goals located at either end of the field and are worth two points in rugby and one in football. A two point conversion is possible in pro football if the scoring team attempts a second touchdown of the ball.