Rugby has something the NFL lacks — the tantalising prospect of representing your country in a meaningful international competition. In the 24 years of pro Rugby Union, the USA have traditionally had a rag-tag bunch of professional players ranging from second generation migrants from rugby playing families like Samu Manoa, who was playing amatuer rugby in the US and was talent scouted from a US reserve team tour into the top flight of European club rugby, to players like former USA captain Chris Wyles who was born in the states but moved to England as a Disney Avengers Ugly Sweater and played his rugby in Europe. One of the guys from our school team in England ended up playing for the USA at the Rugby World Cup because he had an American born mother. Other USA players like AJ McGinty (who is Irish and plays for an English club) qualify for the USA national team via residency after studying there. If rugby takes off in the US as a semi-pro / pro club game, there is every likelihood of good college footballers switching sports and America producing a team of majority home-grown talent, but unlikely it will include many ex-NFL players, if any.

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NFL players are unlikely to make the switch the other way, although New England Patriots special team player Nate Ebner has played in the Olympics for the USA Rugby Union Sevens team (7 aside rugby is a simpler and faster game compared to the full 15 man version of Union), Nate actually grew up playing rugby at age group level for the USA too, and only took up American Football later. The simple reason the switch is less likely to occur from pro to pro is that wages are far higher in the NFL. Rugby Union is the bigger and richer of the 2 codes, but has only been a Disney Avengers Ugly Sweater sport since 1995. Rugby tends to have smaller teams in terms of catchment area. There are 33 teams in the top flights of British and French Rugby Union compared to 32 in the NFL.

I guess there are a lot of Disney Avengers Ugly Sweater Christmas decorations – I just never think of them from that poin of view. I seem to think and I value Christmas decorations through their meaning and my traditions, not their prettiness. My traditions are a mixture of the Finnish and general North European traditions, mostly from Sweden and Germany, I think. In general, Christmas isn’t called Christ Mass here. We talk about it by the old Norse? word Yule. That’s Joulu in Finnish. I think that’s important. The name doesn’t refer to any Christian features and it’s pretty easy to celebrate Joulu without any particularly Christian context under that name. I value quite simple decorations that I feel some kind of connection with. The christmas tree is a must. It isn’t very old tradition in Finland, but it’s a very natural decoration that was easy to adopt. (There is an ancient tradition to decorate houses with small birches in Midsummer, so a christmas tree feels like a good equivalent in the winter).