you CANNOT compare rugby and american football...1, american football is all about being a huge jock and just spearing people...rugby is a "gentlemens" sport, where thre is no rubbing thigs into the other team face, ie. no victory dancing when a try or "touchdown" is scored,
another thing is in football, you can put all your energy into one hit, becasue you then get a  break. in rugby, you need to rap, and it is more stadegy than just going out and nailing someone. we are constantly running and tackling, so we cannot exert all the energy in one hit.
another thing is football players have countless means of protection...while ruigby players have 1.mouthgaurds...yeh some people like myself were the scrum caps, but that is only for our ears in the scrum so they dont get all coleflowered like wrestlers... dont knock rugby unless u have played it