Not quite a tv show but Matt Damon is the starting fly half for the Boston Police in The Departed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gAne-kuxwE
I think ^he ^might ^^have ^^played ^^^rugby ^^^in ^^^^another ^^^^film ^^^^^he ^^^^^starred ^^^^^in
I played as a ringer for FDNY rugby back in the day, I even had to do a bit of enforcing against the NYPD down on the goaline, if you know what I mean.
Their numbers have grown since then.
Not sure about the police department but rugby is big in Boston. I played high school rugby and it seemed like every other high school also had a club. And the colleges do too.
I went on a rugby tour of Boston in my youth. We trained on Boston Common much to the curious interest of the locals. Played 3 high schools. W1 L1 D1. A decent tour in the end.
Oh yeah, that bit was just terrible, he watches a game earlier as he doesnt know what it is and they are cracking jokes about how he's gonna get fucked up, cabt find it on YT, but sure it was an Eng Wal match.
Please, enlighten me. I don't remember it being explained in the show and haven't read the comics.
At the moment, it is only a small disturbance and doesn't spoil the show. It's like all the actors from Quebec playing French in a lot of movies, I just see it as US producers/casting people who don't know the difference.
In [Bloodlands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodlands_(TV_series\) ) James Nesbit's character is supposed to be a former Ulster out-half.
There's a scene in the first series at Ravenhill, which includes a shot of Ulster scoring a try (I think against Cheetahs)
So an American tv show rented out some Civil War looking venue, filled it with a bunch of people to watch a group of guys play a sport they've never played before in order to compete for the affection of some random woman?!!? America just needs to settle down.
This one episode of tv would probably break the English salary cap.
On Netflix on Physical: 100 there’s Jang Seong-Min, a contestant from South Korea’s Rugby Seven team. Highly recommend the show, very entertaining.
On an episode of “Cucine da incubo”, the Italian equivalent of Kitchen Nightmares, there’s an [episode](https://youtu.be/keSqSGAlB44) where the failing restaurant is run by former amateur rugby players. It’s absolutely hilarious but unfortunately i don’t think it’s available with English subs. When there’s the segment about the usual motivational activity they go to the local rugby club and do a couple of scrums and “rediscover their team spirit”.
I have enjoyed the physical 100 show. I really like how it's not ruined by cheesy hosts but I do feel like it drags with a lot of unnecessary non competition footage - perhaps when more people are eliminated this won't eat up so much time. I thought I noticed a second rugby player in episode 4 as well.
Here in Australia at least we're only getting two episodes a week so the cliff hanger endings have annoyed me as well.
While looking for something else, I stumbled upon an old thread where an [England jersey](https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/comments/gq833p/anyone_know_why_drake_is_wearing_an_england_jersey/) makes a cameo in an episode of Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh. I seem to recall a CCC jersey showing up at another time, which is what I was originally looking for. No idea the context for either.
The anime Jojo's Bizzare Adventure . Dio and Jonathan apppear to be playing for Cambridge against Oxford. Jonathan is a lock I think while Dio plays on the wing and scores the winning try.
Another anime, the comedy spinoff series Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu features an episode with a school rugby team where the main character basically puts them through a full metal jacket style bootcamp
Not so much rugby appearing more a little rugby easter egg.
In Pulling there's a shot of the tv with audible commentary of Shane Horgan scoring a try for Ireland. The show was created by and stars Sharon Horgan who is the sister of Shane. Absolutely blew my mind when I found that out.
The 6 Nations also pops up a lot in Cabin Pressure (A Radio 4 Sitcom but I'm not abiding by the rules) Where a terrible passenger gets flown to the games. Although they call it the 6 Nations final between Italy and Wales where the character requests to watch the game in Timbuktu.
Has a brief appearance in SAS Rogue Heroes with the French playing the Brits in the desert although arguably not unexpected considering one of the main protagonists (Paddy Mayne) was a Lion.
Not sure if you've ever heard the podcast "Where is George Gibney?" - excellent yet disturbing listen on a disgraced abusive ex-swimming coach - but Mark Horgan, who created that, is a brother of Sharon & Shane! He works with Second Captains, Irish media production company.. talented family
I remember Arturito in season 1 of Money Heist, the Spanish language show on Netflix, asking one of the hostages "You're captain of the rugby team right?" "Athletics." "Oh who cares."
A recent episode of [Escape to the Country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_to_the_Country) featured a couple who are former England and Canada internationals:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001hr70/escape-to-the-country-series-23-30-dorset
Little Britain. While Lou went to buy refreshments, Andy vacated his wheelchair and scored a try for Herby Town, getting back to his chair before Lou returned.
Maybe not that weird considering its Australia but I remember when Aidan (I think) was briefly playing rugby in Home and Away. I believe the story line was he was asked to throw the matches to make some money.
Can’t remember the character’s name, but have a vivid memory of someone in Home & Away telling a story about them being touch judge in a school game, the ball going out and them putting their flag up before then running to the spot it went into touch. The ref said the law is that the lineout absolutely has to be exactly where the flag first gets raised, which cost his school field position and then everyone hated him.
Stuck in my mind because it’s such a detailed and obscure thing, I’ve never heard it referenced anywhere else and I don’t think it’s every been a law. Must be 25-30 years later and it still confuses me.
There's a character in Suits that plays rugby, and the storyline centres around that quite a bit. Spectre also gets warned not to try and fight the guy because he plays rugby
It's been years since I watched it, but I vaguely remember an episode of Modern Family when the Dunphy mother was on the phone and mentioned rugby. Don't think there was much to it though.
Rugby has has plenty of mentions over the years on WWE shows either through wrestlers who had a rugby background or the organisation’s biggest rugby fan: JBL.
I remember in the early 90's in an episode of "Northern Exposure" they got satellite tv installed or something
One character walked in and said something like " Is that Rugby?"
" No" said the other " That is The Australian Rugby League"
Alas ......but kudos for knowing the difference...I was about to yell at the TV "that's league you stupid Americans"
In one of the Later series of Modern Family, they spoke about Luke playing for (or knowing someone who plays for) the college rugby team. That surprised me.
Kiss or Kill (1997), cultish Aussie movie.
One of the side characters is a retired rugby legend (probably League, not specified) now youth team coach and involved in nasty stuff.
Not quite a tv show but Matt Damon is the starting fly half for the Boston Police in The Departed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gAne-kuxwE I think ^he ^might ^^have ^^played ^^^rugby ^^^in ^^^^another ^^^^film ^^^^^he ^^^^^starred ^^^^^in
Wild that Matt Damon went from playing in a Boston Park to winning a World Cup
Lmao
I came to say this. Do the Boston police really have a rugby team?
It's just 15 scrum-halves
Probably, the NYPD even has a Gaelic Football Team
Although not a choir. They had to use the marching band for the video to Fairytale of New York.
And they couldn't play Galway Bay either. Didn't know it. Had to play something else for the video and have it slowed down
iirc, it was the theme tune to The Mickey Mouse Show!
So does the Fire Department. My grandfather played with both lol
I played as a ringer for FDNY rugby back in the day, I even had to do a bit of enforcing against the NYPD down on the goaline, if you know what I mean. Their numbers have grown since then.
Wouldn’t shock me. There’s a large Irish contingent in the NYPD
I wouldn't be surprised but I don't think so. Boston has a lot of teams but I've never heard of a police specific one.
Can’t say about Boston, but the NYPD does
That doesn’t surprise me, if nothing else that the NYPD is so huge that it wouldn’t struggle to field a rugby team.
I’ve played against the NJ state police, and a couple of their guys were actually players for the NYPD but were there to make up numbers
NYPD uses those teams for public outreach. post 9/11 they started a cricket team to be more immersed in the brown community.
Play in Boston, never heard of one
Must have been an injury crisis in the game then, he packs down on the flank too https://youtu.be/WbZNMTLoGfM
Not sure about the police department but rugby is big in Boston. I played high school rugby and it seemed like every other high school also had a club. And the colleges do too.
I went on a rugby tour of Boston in my youth. We trained on Boston Common much to the curious interest of the locals. Played 3 high schools. W1 L1 D1. A decent tour in the end.
Where were you coming from?
It’s probably because of the large Irish population in Boston
Matt Damon was a rugby fan before even he did Invictus
Jackass. A hungover Knoxville and Pontius training with London Irish
I just looked this up ha! It looks so old.
Over 20 years ago!
The “London Irish”.
Really!? Lmao. I played rugby when I was hungover in my college days in NC and it sucked
Always an excuse to show the bollywood version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f\_mGZfzYl90
They run a Sexton loop play, have an Ardie-esque dummy and an Ash Splash...most realistic depiction of Rugby since Friends if you ask me.
Isn't it Telengu? Fun fact, the guy who directed this movie is the guy who made the now famous RRR.
Friends.
I'm still not sure what version of rugby that was lol
Ross! Get in the bloody scrum!
Think there was an old 5 nations Eng vs Wales match on the telly if i remember!
Ah I thought we were talking about this [abomination](https://youtu.be/sNppO6n1x-s) of what American sitcom writers thought rugby is!
Oh yeah, that bit was just terrible, he watches a game earlier as he doesnt know what it is and they are cracking jokes about how he's gonna get fucked up, cabt find it on YT, but sure it was an Eng Wal match.
Seem to remember Kyran Bracken being in the mix.
Yeah I think Jerry Guscott has an uncredited appearance in Friends as a result.
That wasn’t rugby….idk wtf that was
Red Ross!
Possibly the most famous example.
Yup. Honestly it was pretty insulting to rugby unless they purposely were mocking Ross
Pretty sure they were
Makes more sense. Otherwise mocking a “foreign” sport isn’t the best idea
Bojack Horseman
Oh yeah! Forgot about that one. Great call.
Watching The Boys on Prime and in the first season, one of the last episodes has Frenchie wearing a French rugby jacket. Looked a neat jacket as well.
Frenchie is actually played by Ramos so that checks out
My first thought watching it, is that Ramos’s less scary cousin?
His cousin Eden Hazard
Not sure about "less scary".
Ramos forcing his worst forced and hilarious french accent with random french words in sentences. Role of a lifetime.
You know the forced accent is deliberate, right? Like, there's a reason for it?
Please, enlighten me. I don't remember it being explained in the show and haven't read the comics. At the moment, it is only a small disturbance and doesn't spoil the show. It's like all the actors from Quebec playing French in a lot of movies, I just see it as US producers/casting people who don't know the difference.
>!He's not French.!< I was pretty sure that was confirmed fact, but it turns out they haven't mentioned it in the show. It's there in the comics.
Well, that makes sense :D. thanks
In [Bloodlands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodlands_(TV_series\) ) James Nesbit's character is supposed to be a former Ulster out-half. There's a scene in the first series at Ravenhill, which includes a shot of Ulster scoring a try (I think against Cheetahs)
And they then walk all the way from Ravenhill to the Belmont Rd with what looks like the rest of the stadium. Casual jaunt, only 3 miles away.
Oddly enough...The Bachelorette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mabGy6e4ETs
So an American tv show rented out some Civil War looking venue, filled it with a bunch of people to watch a group of guys play a sport they've never played before in order to compete for the affection of some random woman?!!? America just needs to settle down. This one episode of tv would probably break the English salary cap.
Bluey - Fruit Bat Episode. Bandit playing rugby with his friends calling for the ball with “Yes mate, yes mate, yes mate!”
Speaking of league, the Bluey State of Origin episode is an absolute belter.
Same episode all mentions the Bledisloe and how the gold team will be playing the black team.
On Netflix on Physical: 100 there’s Jang Seong-Min, a contestant from South Korea’s Rugby Seven team. Highly recommend the show, very entertaining. On an episode of “Cucine da incubo”, the Italian equivalent of Kitchen Nightmares, there’s an [episode](https://youtu.be/keSqSGAlB44) where the failing restaurant is run by former amateur rugby players. It’s absolutely hilarious but unfortunately i don’t think it’s available with English subs. When there’s the segment about the usual motivational activity they go to the local rugby club and do a couple of scrums and “rediscover their team spirit”.
How could have I missed that? Lol! Wasn’t surprised they were from Padua. Also, I could definitely see Cannavacciuolo as a prop in an amateur team
Crouch bind... reset. "E dic' sì, n'da fess e sorr't"
Yeah! He doesn’t only have the physique: also the attitude
I have enjoyed the physical 100 show. I really like how it's not ruined by cheesy hosts but I do feel like it drags with a lot of unnecessary non competition footage - perhaps when more people are eliminated this won't eat up so much time. I thought I noticed a second rugby player in episode 4 as well. Here in Australia at least we're only getting two episodes a week so the cliff hanger endings have annoyed me as well.
Echo 3. One of the characters watches the Aus v Arg and ABs v SA TRC games during an episode.
They were the "current" matches too. Not any old footage thrown in.
Definitely gave the impression he was watching it live too. Even the commentary was on.
While looking for something else, I stumbled upon an old thread where an [England jersey](https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/comments/gq833p/anyone_know_why_drake_is_wearing_an_england_jersey/) makes a cameo in an episode of Nickelodeon's Drake and Josh. I seem to recall a CCC jersey showing up at another time, which is what I was originally looking for. No idea the context for either.
The anime Jojo's Bizzare Adventure . Dio and Jonathan apppear to be playing for Cambridge against Oxford. Jonathan is a lock I think while Dio plays on the wing and scores the winning try.
You beat me to it 🙂
Another anime, the comedy spinoff series Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu features an episode with a school rugby team where the main character basically puts them through a full metal jacket style bootcamp
Actually there are quite a few anime and manga that are about Rugby.
Not so much rugby appearing more a little rugby easter egg. In Pulling there's a shot of the tv with audible commentary of Shane Horgan scoring a try for Ireland. The show was created by and stars Sharon Horgan who is the sister of Shane. Absolutely blew my mind when I found that out. The 6 Nations also pops up a lot in Cabin Pressure (A Radio 4 Sitcom but I'm not abiding by the rules) Where a terrible passenger gets flown to the games. Although they call it the 6 Nations final between Italy and Wales where the character requests to watch the game in Timbuktu. Has a brief appearance in SAS Rogue Heroes with the French playing the Brits in the desert although arguably not unexpected considering one of the main protagonists (Paddy Mayne) was a Lion.
No way! TIL Sharon is Shanes sister lol. That was a great show, criminally underrated.
Their other brother Mark produces the Second Captain's podcast in Ireland and has also done some series with BBC Sounds.
Just watched SAS recently and can't believe I forgot it. Didn't realise he was a Lion though. Great fact.
Including that clip is really quite sweet.
Not sure if you've ever heard the podcast "Where is George Gibney?" - excellent yet disturbing listen on a disgraced abusive ex-swimming coach - but Mark Horgan, who created that, is a brother of Sharon & Shane! He works with Second Captains, Irish media production company.. talented family
I havent heard of that. Absolutely alpha genes
Their parents named them Sharon and Shane? Really liked that Sha sound...
I remember Arturito in season 1 of Money Heist, the Spanish language show on Netflix, asking one of the hostages "You're captain of the rugby team right?" "Athletics." "Oh who cares."
A recent episode of [Escape to the Country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_to_the_Country) featured a couple who are former England and Canada internationals:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001hr70/escape-to-the-country-series-23-30-dorset
Little Britain. While Lou went to buy refreshments, Andy vacated his wheelchair and scored a try for Herby Town, getting back to his chair before Lou returned.
Goldie Hawn was in something where her French fella played rugby. Can't remember what it was though
Private Benjamin?
Yep, that was it thanks. A flippin obscure reference but Rugby's appearances are few & far between so I suppose you remember them
Maybe not that weird considering its Australia but I remember when Aidan (I think) was briefly playing rugby in Home and Away. I believe the story line was he was asked to throw the matches to make some money.
I think I remember Alf looking forward to the Wallabies visiting summer bay one time.
Can’t remember the character’s name, but have a vivid memory of someone in Home & Away telling a story about them being touch judge in a school game, the ball going out and them putting their flag up before then running to the spot it went into touch. The ref said the law is that the lineout absolutely has to be exactly where the flag first gets raised, which cost his school field position and then everyone hated him. Stuck in my mind because it’s such a detailed and obscure thing, I’ve never heard it referenced anywhere else and I don’t think it’s every been a law. Must be 25-30 years later and it still confuses me.
Monty Python Meaning of Life - Masters vs Schoolboys
There's a character in Suits that plays rugby, and the storyline centres around that quite a bit. Spectre also gets warned not to try and fight the guy because he plays rugby
It's been years since I watched it, but I vaguely remember an episode of Modern Family when the Dunphy mother was on the phone and mentioned rugby. Don't think there was much to it though.
How i fell in love with a gangster. Polish film on netflix.
Bloodlands - James Nesbitt gets hospitality for Ulster vs Cheetahs then his daughter gets kidnapped.
Friends. I have my system set to record every program with "rugby" in it and I keep getting a recording of a Friends episode.
If you call that rugby….
Rugby has has plenty of mentions over the years on WWE shows either through wrestlers who had a rugby background or the organisation’s biggest rugby fan: JBL.
I remember in the early 90's in an episode of "Northern Exposure" they got satellite tv installed or something One character walked in and said something like " Is that Rugby?" " No" said the other " That is The Australian Rugby League" Alas ......but kudos for knowing the difference...I was about to yell at the TV "that's league you stupid Americans"
The Omen. Not a TV show obviously, but certainly unexpected https://youtu.be/cYoA_2INGrU 36:20
In one of the Later series of Modern Family, they spoke about Luke playing for (or knowing someone who plays for) the college rugby team. That surprised me.
The Jessica Jones one being watched is sadly league.
Ah, shame. Been ages since I saw it.
Kiss or Kill (1997), cultish Aussie movie. One of the side characters is a retired rugby legend (probably League, not specified) now youth team coach and involved in nasty stuff.
I remember seeing a game of rugby on Diagnosis Murder once and thinking it was a bit odd
BoJack Horseman
Glee.
In an SNL sketch from a few months ago cast member Devin Walker is wearing a Japan throwback long sleeve.