They're on a different planet than us in rugby. I'm actually amazed we even have a somewhat-competitive international team. I lived in Europe for several years (where rugby is huge) and always had to explain that in the US, rugby is basically a niche club sport. Nobody plays it, nobody watches it, and nobody funds it (slight exaggeration but basically true). Rugby is like the 20th-most popular sport in the US. Far below football, basketball, soccer, baseball, hockey, softball, lacrosse, wrestling, boxing, MMA, tennis, track & field, swimming/diving, etc. It's not even on the radar of most American sports fans. You're totally right though: if we could take athletic football players who aren't quite good enough to play in the NFL, CFL, Arena, etc football leagues, and teach them how to play rugby (quite different from American football) we could field a pretty decent team. I think we're a long way from making that happen, though.