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Originally Posted by RedskinRat
Totally agree. In Europe we have a billion people that can kick a ball straight up, with a fade/slice ect playing Rugby (ok, slightly less than a billion) and I never understood why they weren't recruited into the NFL more often.
Has anyone esle seen the kicks in Rugby for the conversions from crazy angles?
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1) Rugby kickers generally kick on the full run when aiming for touch. Gives them more power than a virtually standing kick (punt).
2) When going for touch they are doing exactly that. Accuracy is second to distance. Watch a rugby game all the way through and you will see plenty of wayward kicks.
3) When kicking penalties (think FG's) they have all the time in the world (well virtually) to set the ball up, line up the kick and kick the ball. NFL kickers have a limited time to set up (play clock) and about 1 second to make the kick. Not the same environment.
4) Rugby ball is bigger and softer than a football. I know for a fact kicking them is different enough to make a big difference, especially considering the 3 points above.
NFL kickers generally come from a soccer background, even if they haven't kicked all the way through high school and college. Rubgy players have kicked their way from school (12 years old or so) thorugh college and university. Retraining them wouldn't be worth the effort for NFL teams.
Oh, and the last ime I saw a rugby player try to play pro football (London Monarchs Martin Offiah) it was a miserable failure.