I grew up in the UK and played rugby. It's fun to play, but XVs rugby in particular has serious watchability issues. With no blocking, most of the play bogs down and turns into a game of kicking unless one side or the other is overmatched. Louis Nix types in rugby playing areas of the world love the opportunity to carry the ball, and the fact that they're closer to the ball than the guys with actual ball skills generally tends to hurt the game rather than help it, in my opinion. Most of the time, the big fat guys simply lumber forward for a few yards, get gang tackled (again, no blocking), and either turn the ball over or simply pass it back to another big fat dude to do the same thing.
Rugby would probably be a better game in general if forwards weren't allowed to run with the ball. VIIs rugby is a great game precisely because there aren't any big fat guys to monopolize the ball in the middle of the field, but for some reason VIIs remains a niche game in the rugby world.
