Rugby is easily as hard-hitting and vicious as hockey. Easily. And yet there are almost never any fights. You get ejected in the first place, and you may lose out on every playing again, the rules are strict, and strictly enforced. There's all kinds of minor shenanigans, but never a "fight" like in hockey.
And in deciding something was dangerous, a tackle known as a "spear tackle" where you wrap a guy, lift him up, flip him, and drive him down headfirst (his arms being wrapped up) the Rugby rules committees deemed them illegal, and .... now you can't do that, so rugby players... don't do that.
Hockey is so behind, hockey culture such a goddamned dinosaur thing, it's just stupid.
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