If England win the RWC for the 2nd time in a row, would rugby replace soccer as thier number one sport?

Question

The English soccer team havn't won the FIFA world cup since 1966 and the English have a good chance to go back to back champions

Answer 1

No soccer is the number one sport in the world and in England, but when and if they do win the Rugby World Cup for a brief moment rugby will supplant soccer as the number one team sport. Then after the honeymoon the status quo will revert back to normal.

Answer 2

Unfortunately Rugby is seen very much as a ‘cult’ activity only nationally popular after the national team has won something, which isn’t fair at all. We only ever really see Rugby matches on television when Johnny Wilkinson is playing or England in a World Cup/Six nations, or on the odd Saturday afternoon (ITV or BBC2 can't remember which, use to show some games).

I’d credit Rugby higher than I do football, even though I’m not a fan of Rugby and a football supporter. Compare the two and Rugby has far more guts, spirit and passion and they don’t have to run the whole length of the pitch with their hand in the air before sliding on their backside to prove it.

It will be the same old whether England win tonight or not. A heighten frenzy surrounding Rugby for the next couple of months as seen in 2003 and then nothing, it’ll drop flat. If they don’t win, the period to the interest in Rugby will drop flat even quicker.

If England win it won’t replace football as the most ‘successful’ sport because beyond 1966 English football hasn’t had much success, Rugby will be in competition with Cricket for that honour and I don't know too much about cricket's successes.

Answer 3

football is played by the world,not a few ex colonial countries and pacific islands.

as for england winning it well firstly because your country makes the final dosent make it an interesting sport,on top of the fact the competition dosent start till the final eight as half the teams have a population of 12 or dont actual play the sport.

the rugby players are real men? i dont watch football to assert some manlyness,its just agreat sport,plus there s something wrong about a bunch of posh public school boys shoving there heads up each others behinds.

at least rugby league (tho im not a fan) has some pace,skill and entertainment to it,union is so stop start its boring.

lastly walkign around today i saw 2 england tops on,if that was football most people would be wearing them and the atmosphere everywhere would be electric,remember last time all this false crap about how rugby was going to take over football? hahahahahaha they have at best gates of championship sides in football.



oh and theyve just lost,still want to compare? see how many turn up for the club games.

Answer 4

I don't think that it will ever be as popular as football, but I think it is a much more interesting sport to watch!

I like the fact that rather than extra time, the game stops when it needs to, and then resumes again - which makes sense, and the fact that it's not just kicking a ball - it's a mix of all sorts of things - which makes it much more entertaining!

I could not watch a full football match without getting bored, regardless of how 'important' it was, but when I watched the rugby today, the time seemed to fly by even though towards the end it was obvious we were going to lose! When you see the players injured yet fighting on, you know they've tried extremely hard and you can still be proud of them even when the outcome is not what you hoped. Football is much less manly =|

In our household, rugby is definitely more popular than football =D

Answer 5

Even though the English football team sucks (what a bunch of overpaid, overhyped losers) rugby will never replace football as Englands No.1 sport.

England are already the defending World Cup Champions in rugby and this has done nothing to replace football as the No.1 sport in the UK.

COME ON ENGLAND

Answer 6

A good question to which the answer (as so many have already said) is no.

Having said that rugby, wether it be league or union, should be supported better than what it is.

Reasons: (Dissagree if you like)

1) Rugby players are paid a hell of a lot less than their footballing equivalants and yet can take more physical punishment in one game than the majority of footballers take in a season.

2) Rugby players play with passion and for the love of the game.......no for the money

3) There is more respect in rugby towards match officials

I could think of others but it's getting late......



I don't expect everyone to agree with my comments because just as their are people who support Man U and Liverpool over Chelsea and Arsenal, there will be people who support football over rugby.

Thanks Col

Answer 7

Us British sports supporters are SO fickle when it comes to choosing what team to back.There have been SO many examples over again over again.

While Footie will always remain the top sport of the nation,if other sport event's are doing well then we go all out to support them(which isn't a bad thing)then drop them if they are,not.

Here are a few examples;Kelly Holmes winning her relay races,before she won,know one could care who she was,then all of a sudden we do,just cause she won a few medals and happened to make history-where was the support before?

Ashley Pearson is a talented boy who seems to have it all at the moment,but as soon as he stops's winning,then we'll become less interested.

The same with the Rugby when we won the the cup,a few years back,everyone was going-on about it for THE moment ,then we forgot about it.

Even when we won the Ashes,the same thing happened again.

As soon as we are doing well in some kind of sport everyone jumps on the bandwagon,but did they support the teams before they were winning?,or is it just now cause there's a chance we could win?!

Answer 8

South africa are good contenders for the rugby world cup but not the other 2 really. Australia have cricket easily and have a good chance in the rugby but not in football. England is basically fairly well chanced in all 3, so I think the one most likely to win all three would be England.

Answer 9

The answer is yes but only temporarily.

It's common in England for Cricket and Rugby Union to become the most popular sport when the teams are Internationally successful, though Football will always regain the top spot shortly afterwards as evidenced after the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the 2005 Ashes series.

Answer 10

Absolutely no chance whatsoever. You seem to forget that they won it four years ago and still no one really cares. There'll be loads watching tomorrow, like me, who will use it as an excuse to celebrate if we win, but will then forget all about rugby for another 4 years. I'll still follow the football week in and week out, though. That's the difference. people watch the footy every week, even if it's a fairly meaningless game. Most only watch the rugby when it's a massive event like the world cup final.

Hey, I just read a comment that said we didnt make the most of the last world cup win, but that's possibly because England played absolutely c**p after that win! No one wants to watch losers.