Being an Aussie and a Big NRL and UFC fan I'm loving seeing the NRL boys making such an impact on the UFC. Former Rugby League players that have made an impact on the UFC are Booby Knuckles, Tia T & now Volkanovski.
For those outside of Australia you most likely would have heard of Rugby but Rugby League is a different game / beast which is a lot more suited to be a stepping stone into the UFC.
How and why?
Not to go into to much details about the rules but both Rugby and Rugby league have the shared aim where the attacking team needs to place the ball on the ground in their try lines and the defencing team need to stop them. In Rugby after each tackle (takedown) there's a ruck that develops as per the below image.
The ruck is more of a team effort of control, where you're working with your team to either try and steal the ball or to keep control of the ball. Rugby has 15 players on each team on the field at a time.
Now lets compare this to Rugby League, there's 13 players on the team and there is no ruck allowed after a tackle. So once a player gets tackled they then need to work their way to a quick play the ball which is to roll the ball under their legs, as per the below image.
Now how does this relate to the UFC?
Both games are momentum based, as an attacker you want to get a quick play the ball in both sports to catch the other team moving back / tire them out.
As a defender you want to slow them down. In Rugby since there's more bodies around the ball the control is more of a team effort on a tackle by tackle basis. In Rugby League it's a lot different since for the most part there's 2 people in a tackle, many times just a 1 on 1. If you can get the attacking player on their back then you can slow them down, while they are trying to get up quick you have some seconds to work them over. As an attacker you're trying to get up quick after each tackle / take down.
There is an average of 659 tackles per game (80 minute game) which is just over 8 per minute. To make it in the league for the most part you need to have been playing this game as a kid, training is heavily focused towards this aspect of the game where for the most part this is where the game is won. Since they were children they have been practicing their ability to take down and get up quickly and efficiently, all Rugby League teams now offer jiu jitsu training, which in turn can introduce them to the UFC.
There's different body sized players, so someone the size of Chad Mendez will need to get used to taking down some the size of DC which in turn develops some beats. Granted to make it you need more than just these skills but i feel it's evident that these skills are a great foundation to work from.
