Ok, for me this is actually a no brainer! If I had the choice to watch a premiership rugby game or a premiership football game, I would watch a rugby game any day of the week. There is no dispute however that there is substantially more money in football and is the more popular sport in the UK.
There is one thing however that really gets on my nerves. When rugby fans try and justify why rugby is better than football, more often then not the only reason they give is that it's more dangerous/violent! Pathetic reasoning, that's just a bit barbaric. For the same reasons I don't like the supporters culture in football. Some of the chants are just plain rude and the battle supposed to be played on the field moves to the stands. This doesn't mean that rugby fans lack passion! The atmosphere at international rugby games are SO good! When those anthems ring out, and some players are moved to tears you see the passion! Where as half the England football team don't know the words to it, and lets be honest, its not a hard anthem to know.
Respect! doesn't matter if you ware the word on your sleeve, when your mouthing off in the face of the referee, you don't need to hear what they are saying to know what words they are using. Rugby players swear, that's not the difference. The difference is that they don't shout it in the face of the ref, or the camera (Mr Rooney, I don't care if you were happy or angry, your life must be pretty good and there is no need for the language). I love it when you hear the rugby players addressing the ref as "Sir"! Too Flipping right!
To be honest, liking a sport, purely for the sport is totally up to the person, and rugby wins it for me. There are some elements of the football culture that I think are totally wrong and there is way too much money involved in football.
