Rugby bigger in the Eastern Bloc and thoughts

Firstly, the smaller point. WI Romania was added to the Five Nations (as it was then) during the 80s? According to The Genocide they were both rumoured to be interested and invited. Would Rugby in Romania have survived the overthrow of Ceausescu and subsequent events better? Perhaps ITTL Romania would be where Italy are in Rugby today, or even more advanced. With a seven nations being impractical, where would that leave Italy?

Also, what POD or PODs could trigger Rugby Union being popular (as popular as ti is at least in England, huge man points for as popular as it is in South Wales) in the USSR, with the possibility of it being a reasonable power (world top ten)? Would this mean things like an earlier Rugby World Cup? Or other things ...
 
That could have the opposite result, I think. It reminds me of Coca-Cola's branding in the former USSR. Essentially, it became available in the late Soviet period and, while normally thought of as quintessentially American, is often associated with the Soviet Union.
 
Firstly, the smaller point. WI Romania was added to the Five Nations (as it was then) during the 80s? According to The Genocide they were both rumoured to be interested and invited. Would Rugby in Romania have survived the overthrow of Ceausescu and subsequent events better? Perhaps ITTL Romania would be where Italy are in Rugby today, or even more advanced. With a seven nations being impractical, where would that leave Italy?

Also, what POD or PODs could trigger Rugby Union being popular (as popular as ti is at least in England, huge man points for as popular as it is in South Wales) in the USSR, with the possibility of it being a reasonable power (world top ten)? Would this mean things like an earlier Rugby World Cup? Or other things ...

Custard Cream Monster

If I remember rightly from news reports of the time I think a sizeable number of the Romanian squad were actually killed in the revolution, supporting it. That gave rugby a big short term hit and probably the economic and political problems in the country since haven't helped.

Possibly if they had become members of the 6 Nations, as it would have become, that might have helped maintain it as the sport would have gained publicity and revenue, along with possibly some for the nation as a whole. Would also have given the country more publicity, of a generally favourable sort and hence possibly more funding to help out.

I notice Georgia and Russia both have RU teams, although not particularly strong, but don't think it's placed elsewhere in eastern Europe?

The answer to Italy joining the competition if Romania already in it would I suggest to have invited in 1 or 3 other nations and have two divisions, one up one down. This would also have the advantage that new nations, such as Italy in its 1st seasons, aren't always going against the top northern nations and getting hammered regularly, which would probably help the sport develop. At the same time it would allow them, if they came at the top of their division, to get exposure to rugby at a higher level.

When there was some talk of Argentina joining the competition a couple of years back I would have loved to have seen this happen, with a couple of other nations join. Would have given useful benefits. I fear the problem is that the existing main powers don't think the idea that a bad season and they have to spend a year in the 2nd division.:(

Steve
 
Firstly, the smaller point. WI Romania was added to the Five Nations (as it was then) during the 80s? According to The Genocide they were both rumoured to be interested and invited. Would Rugby in Romania have survived the overthrow of Ceausescu and subsequent events better? Perhaps ITTL Romania would be where Italy are in Rugby today, or even more advanced. With a seven nations being impractical, where would that leave Italy?

Also, what POD or PODs could trigger Rugby Union being popular (as popular as ti is at least in England, huge man points for as popular as it is in South Wales) in the USSR, with the possibility of it being a reasonable power (world top ten)? Would this mean things like an earlier Rugby World Cup? Or other things ...

It's not unreasonable to imagine the Romanians being invited to join, as they were a good team in the 1980s, getting wins over some of the Home Nations. What's less likely though is that this makes a great contribution to a better performance post-communism. As stevep said, a number of the Romanian team were killed during the revolution: members of sports clubs were important contributors to the revolution, and I would expect this to be the case OTL, butterflies permitting. Additionally, as Romanian sport as a whole suffered greatly as a result of the economic collapse that followed the end of communism, I would expect Romanian rugby to be hit more or less as hard as it was OTL, though perhaps it gets off slightly easier if Romania is in the Five Nations and has additional revenue and popularity from that, though I don't think it's enough to completely save it. As a result, I would expect Romania to be the whipping boys of the 1990s, though as they have the regular competition of the Five Nations they could well make a recovery.
 
USA

How about rugby gains popularity in the US during the 1970's? Rugby quality graduly improves. Now we would be hearing about how the US should/shouldn't be in 5 ( 6,7) nations.
 
How about rugby gains popularity in the US during the 1970's? Rugby quality graduly improves. Now we would be hearing about how the US should/shouldn't be in 5 ( 6,7) nations.

Realistically it would take a POD around 1860 to get rugby popular in the USA, as it was banned by a number of Ivy League colleges for being too violent and subsequently lost ground to American football. There wasn't a governing body for rugby until 1975, by which point it's far too unpopular compared to American football. The problem for rugby in the USA is that as the skill-sets required for rugby are easily transferred to American football (thrown passing, tackling, catching, kicking) many of the best rugby players will become American football players. Remember, rugby union didn't officially go professional until 1995.

Also, if the Americans were competitive enough, would they be invited to join the Five Nations? It is essentially a European championship. It might be invited to join the Tri Nations, or some Americas tournament could be formed with the USA, Argentina and Canada.
 
Had Dai Jones not died he would have gone to Russia to contribute to the revolution in Russia.

Dai had two passions is life Marxism and Rugby.

Dai had excellant military, language and leadership skills which placed him in a postion to introduce Rugby to the red army where it caught on.

Ex soldiers missing the sport in the army introduced it to the general population of the USSR.

After WWII other Warsaw Pact countries learned the game during training exercises
 
How about rugby gains popularity in the US during the 1970's? Rugby quality graduly improves. Now we would be hearing about how the US should/shouldn't be in 5 ( 6,7) nations.

If Rugby ever gets really popular in the US the Eagles team will rule the Rugby world. The skill set is similar enough that American college footballers who dont make the big time could retrain for Rugby fairly quickly and the US could have an awesome set of forwards. Backs might not be so easy to create from ex American footballers possibly ex track and field guys might be better for the ladies at the back.

If ever say the US military (West Point already has a very good Rugby team) or some major colleges decide to back Rugby big time then watch out the old established Rugby nations. The US has plenty of awesome athletes, quite a lot of current players who could become coaches and lots of facilities.

In fact forget I said all that the US beats us often enough at sport leave our Rugby alone;)
 
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