Are Rugby Players or Soccer players the fitter?

sxswhsw

The fitter one?

Reply 1

py0alb

Football does involve a lot of standing around while the ball is at the other end of the pitch.

Reply 2

py0alb

I suppose the only rational answer is: given that the elite levels of both sports will push human physical endurance to a similar extent, how quickly are players able to recover from matches and how frequently are the games therefore scheduled.

Even taking into account squad rotation soccer games are almost twice as frequent as rugby games, which are rarely separated by less than 6 days. So you would have to conclude that a single rugby game is more physically demanding than a single soccer game.

Reply 3

jonniebee

It depends on the category of fitness. Aerobics - football. Strength - rugby.

Reply 4

Seaton

In terms of the entire body, professional rugby players would tend to be fitter in terms of more muscle spread across the body. They do significantly more fitness/gym training than footballers because it is necessary.

Not a slight on footballers by any means, in fact I would wager in a long distance race many pro footballers may come up trumps as rugby players train for strength and explosive power.

However in this case I am just comparing the top footballers versus the top back-line players. The lower down the leagues you go in football the more significant the difference in 'fitness' becomes I would say.

Edit: What the above posters said.

Reply 5

The Troll Toll

If I had to guess I would say footballers because money attracts genetic talent. Close though.

Reply 6

Arturo Bandini

On average distances covered per game:

http://www.rfu.com/news/2011/april/news%20articles/140411_gps_premiership says for rugby:
Average distance covered ranges from 4.45km (front row) to 6.84km (scrum half)

http://www.plainsoccer.com/2009/09/distance-covered-per-game.html says for football:
In 2005/06, the average EPL midfielder ran 11.49 kilometres per game. The average EPL centre-back covered 9.96 kilometres per game.

And considering football players play more often as pointed out by our man above.

But it depends how you define "fit" I guess