Players wear metal cleats with long, vicious spikes. Players wear short, usually rubber cleats. Higher risk of injury from sporadic rate of play. Players have to stand around, wait, then sprint when cold.
Game never stops so players never have a chance to get cold.
Strong associations with tobacco chewing which leads to cancer. Most people can't chew and run at the same time which places rugby players at a lower risk for cancer. Copyright 1995 -7 Stacey Irvine, San Francisco, California.