For anyone on the forum missing American Football the coming months present a great chance to get into the game of Rugby.
The Home nations (England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland) will soon be playing in the Six Nations tournament along with Italy and France. Prior to this tournament beginning all these teams will usually play warm up games against visiting teams - mainly from the Southern Hemisphere - South Africa(current world champions) , New Zealand, Australia, The Pacific Islanders and Canada, are all over here at the moment.
Rugby is a great game to get into from both a sporting and a social point of view. It has none of the negative connotations of football (soccer) and generally attracts a really good crowd, also very family friendly. The old adage that rugby is a game for hooligans played by gentlemen, while football is a game for gentlemen played by hooligans is still true today i think.
A combination of finding your local club and watching all the great Internationals coming up over the next month will provide a good introduction to the game, particularly if you can get someone to give you a quick insight into the rules of course...
You may also be surprised to the see this species in its natural environment rather than on Strictly Come Dancing....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/fixtures/4776295.stm