Is Architecture Like Rugby?

I went to a rugby game last night.  Navy vs. Air Force.  Always great fun without the craziness and hype attending NFL games and other professional American teams. Rugby is still a nascent sport in the United States, so the ushers thoughtfully provided a brief guide to the rules, which included this pithy summary:

On the pitch: Navy, left.  Air Force, right.

"Rugby has its unique aspects, but like many other sports, it is essentially about the creation and use of space.  The winners of a game of Rugby will be the team of players who can get themselves and the ball into space and use that space wisely, while denying the opposing team both possession of the ball and access to space in which to use it." (Italics added.)

In the scrum.

Hmmm.  Sounds a lot like???? Architecture.  I never thought of it that way before.  Of course, with architecture we are not usually "denying the opposing team... access to space."  But the rest of it rings right. Sports are often used as a metaphor for life. I suppose Rugby could be a useful metaphor for architecture.

In this game, Navy created and used more space, 19 to 10.

Creating space.