Kiwi fans have responded with disdain to ESPN's Kevin Van Valkenburg's suggestions of the USA dominating world rugby with the aid of the NFL's top stars, after his controversial tweet on Monday.
Van Valkenburg, ESPN's senior American football writer, claimed that USA would dominate the sport, if the NFL's top talent were to be made available, having watched a game of American college rugby.
"Briefly watched college rugby today while getting a hair cut b/c they wouldn’t turn on golf," Van Valkenburg's tweet began.
"Conclusion: If you gave me a year, Urban Meyer, Zeke Elliott, JJ Watt, Leonard Foutnette & an NFL practice squad, the US would so thoroughly dominate rugby, other countries would quit."
The story itself was shared a total of 316 times on 1 NEWS' Facebook page , while also recieving nearly 3,000 reactions.
Kiwi fans were quick to counter Van Valkenburg's claims though, pointing out the vast differences between the NFL and rugby.
"Take off their pads and helmets and then we will see," tweeted Mark Vaudrey.
"Can't fault the athleticism of some of their players but as a whole - you need to be good at a range of things - in rugby you have one team who attack and defend," Tiniwaata Winikerei-Hill posted on Facebook.
"ESPN writer showing how little he knows about Rugby . . . the goose should stick to American sports," Craig Johnson commented.
Twitter user Simon Beehre took a more diplomatic approach, replying directly to Van Valkenburg by saying:
"Rugby really is a game that is made for America.. it has tactics, contact running with the ball. One big difference is the players control the game and not the coaches like in the NFL."
"Such a stupid claim. Yes the NFL have some incredible athletes, some of the best on earth but rugby is takes a lot more than athleticism. But what is even more far fetched is this guys reckons he could coach players that don't know the game into a dominant force in 12 months that's just laughable," Dan Vann posted.
"Can this game actually happen like for real though get the best ones from NFL to go up against the All Blacks," Vincent Bowen questioned.
The USA's foray into Sevens was also raised, with Carl Krause writing: "They've tried this with 7's. Had some good results but not even coming close to being feared and are currently ranked 5th."
"The USA Sevens are only #5 on the HSBC World Sevens standings, after competing in the World Series every year since the event's inaugural 1999–2000 season. How on earth will a 15 man team get up to speed any quicker?" posted Pieter Van Der Westhuizen.
"It would take them 30 years to be competitive with the top teams... a county of our size is top of the heap, tiny player pool to pick from... don’t think numbers really count for anything," said David Stack.
Van Valkenburg eventually backtracked on his original suggestion, replying with:
"No chance a team of US studs would dominate. But our best football players would absolutely be successful if given time to learn the nuances."
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