Rugby players get a mouth-guard to try and prevent them losing teeth and that's about it. Growing up in England, I had to play Rugby during P.E. at school (no armour provided, not even a mouth guard). The thing is, we never used to play Rugby until the winter, so when you went down you weren't going down onto some nice soft grass, you were going down onto ground that either was frozen solid, or completely bogged down with mud.
I always like showing people videos of Shrovetide when they start going on about American Football. This is a game played in my home town each year, they board up and pretty much close the whole town so they can play it. I really do suggest you watch the whole thing since some of the things in it are hilarious breaches of health and safety (actually pretty much the whole game is an hilarious breach of health and safety).
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbwRuIWCDaw[/yt]
I always like showing people videos of Shrovetide when they start going on about American Football. This is a game played in my home town each year, they board up and pretty much close the whole town so they can play it. I really do suggest you watch the whole thing since some of the things in it are hilarious breaches of health and safety (actually pretty much the whole game is an hilarious breach of health and safety).
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbwRuIWCDaw[/yt]
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.