Why Rugby Union is the greatest sport ever...

[ayepatz]

I watched today’s Scotland V France Six Nations match in a Scottish pub in Paris.

Scotland, against the odds, won the game, but, were it not for one ill-considered French punch, the result could have been very different.

That being said, as soon as the final whistle sounded, these lads fired up the bagpipes in the pub.

The best part? They weren’t even Scottish. They were French.

As a good Scot I did the only thing I could think of as fitting - grabbed a bottle of Glenmorangie from behind the bar and polished it off with my new, bag-piping French mates.

Here’s to Rugby and good, old-fashioned sporting camaraderie!
 

 

[JohnS]

I concur ol' pal. I mean...I'm tempted to pin this topic just to remind everyone  (how good a game Rugby Union is on days such as this one!) ?

[99call]

I felt sure this thread was going to end up with a Joe Marler inspired testies tickleathon, obviously not enough whisky.

Best tournament in the world. Can't believe it's soon to be pay per view. Gutted.

[Fuzz]

I don't know, full body contact tiddly-winks is a pretty darn good sport...

 

[westg]

That would have been so awesome. ? 

[T.52]

I was watching the Rugy Sevens Vancouver on TV yesterday and Scotland also beat France in a close one.  Good day for you.

[Chibearsv]

I like your story and I think we should all aspire to that level of sportsmanship in general, however:

I'm imagining some Packer fans sitting in a Chicago bar watching a Bears vs Packers playoff game and after the Packers win, the Bear fans sing the Packer fight song... wouldn't happen EVER!  The Packer fans would be wise to make a quick quiet exit instead.  Of course my scenario in Green Bay would be a mirror image.  I know this is going to sound terrible after your story but it sure is a lot of fun to have true sports hatred for another team and their fans, and know that their fans equally hate our team and us.  

[Ken Gargett]

22 hours ago, ayepatz said:

I watched today’s Scotland V France Six Nations match in a Scottish pub in Paris.

Scotland, against the odds, won the game, but, were it not for one ill-considered French punch, the result could have been very different.

That being said, as soon as the final whistle sounded, these lads fired up the bagpipes in the pub.

The best part? They weren’t even Scottish. They were French.

As a good Scot I did the only thing I could think of as fitting - grabbed a bottle of Glenmorangie from behind the bar and polished it off with my new, bag-piping French mates.

Here’s to Rugby and good, old-fashioned sporting camaraderie!
 

IMG_0203.mov 16.39 MB · 1 download

 

one of the greatest days i have ever had was attending a wallabies v france game many years ago, in paris. so much fun from hours before, at the game (which was delayed for four hours because tv was showing a tennis final, so 60,000 spent an extra four hours in pubs), and hours after. one day, with time, i'll try and put down what happened. the french were brilliant. 

so absolutely. rugby can be brilliant. 

on the other hand, i've been to plenty of games across in nz. i suspect it would be more welcoming going to war.

even went to ireland v australia in the world cup in nz and the kiwis still spat at us. i've had kiwis in a box at one of their grounds, the box belonging to a major 'shared' bank, refuse to stand for the aussie national anthem and yell abuse through it (i was so angry i may have lodged some complaints about that and to the bank's credit, i had a call from the chairman to apologise, and to assure me that those involve - not hard to identify when you are in your employer's box - did not have long and illustrious careers ahead of them). sit in a crowd over there and you get endless insults. not entertaining banter or anything witty, just dimwits screaming abuse. 

get away from rugby crowds and nz can be wonderfully welcoming (well, not outright hostile at least). although i remember staying in a small country pub once. went down to the bar. one of the patrons had not realised i was the aussie staying in the pub. and off he went on what he thought of us. &^&%R% aussies, any insult he could think of, we should not be allowed over there (a bit rich considering most of them are over here) and finally, inevitably, the underarm bowling (i always point out that they have misunderstood that incident and that they should be so grateful to us for it that they should get down on their knees every day and thank us - it helped drag them out of their 50s stupor and gave them something to do every day. whinge about us). the rest of the pub was trying to get him to shut up and he finally twigged. he did have the decency to be highly embarrassed and didn't say anything more when i shared a few thoughts, and then left, but generally, if there is no rugby on, most kiwis in nz are great people. 

on the NFL example, the one game when i lived over there , which i made was skins v cowboys, back when it was as serious a rivalry as any in the sport. i sat next to a bunch of cowboy fans. i won't say we ended up best mates but we got on fine. and i remember one of the topics being english soccer crowds. because i'd come from london, they wanted to know if it was true, what they were like. they could not imagine crowds being divided or not being able to sit next to opposition fans and still enjoy the game. it was a long time ago. 

[BlueRidgeFly]

I was in Sydney for a few weeks in June/July 2002 for work. The one thing I took away from that trip, besides what a great place Australia is and the wonderful people we worked with and met, was how mad everyone is about rugby. I had no idea beforehand. Great sport. We must have watched a dozen matches on TV with the guys we were working with, on top of the World Cup matches in Korea/Japan. Good memories.

[Ken Gargett]

29 minutes ago, BlueRidgeFly said:

I was in Sydney for a few weeks in June/July 2002 for work. The one thing I took away from that trip, besides what a great place Australia is and the wonderful people we worked with and met, was how mad everyone is about rugby. I had no idea beforehand. Great sport. We must have watched a dozen matches on TV with the guys we were working with, on top of the World Cup matches in Korea/Japan. Good memories.

stunned at that. rugby is effectively a minor code here. it has a small and very strong following especially for tests and world cups but outside that, very minor. 

you might have been talking about rugby league? different game. 

[ayepatz]

I grew up in Glasgow. There is no bigger sporting rivalry than the Old Firm. Rangers and Celtic fans have historically taken their Protestant/Catholic religious enmity and used football as a vehicle for expressing it. If there are fewer than 50 arrests, the police consider it to have have been a quiet game. Hatred for the opposition doesn’t come any bigger in any sport, and violence has haunted the Old Firm fixture for over a century. Fans rarely dare to occupy the same pub (the police frown on that), let alone share a pint and a laugh after the game.

In my experience, Rugby Union has always been at the other end of the spectrum. Since my very first game, there has a been a shared camaraderie between opposing sets of fans. Grudges are rarely held or carried beyond the final whistle, and it’s the norm to share a pint or two with the opposition after the game, whether you’re playing or spectating.

I’ve had great nights out with the Irish, Welsh, French, Italians, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, and, yes, even the English after Rugby matches.

There is a camaraderie in Rugby Union which crosses international boundaries that I have simply never found in any other sport.

Long may it continue! ??

[99call]

7 minutes ago, ayepatz said:

There is a camaraderie in Rugby Union which crosses international boundaries that I have simply never found in any other sport.

Long may it continue! ??

I heard a great story about a rugby league game the other day on a Podcast,  where the Wigan team mascot walked over to the opposing fans, and shat out of his furry buttocks, a miniature toy version of the opposing teams mascot.   This first led to a boo, and then a standing ovation by the opposing teams fans.   Thats a quality piece of sledging right there, and it was universally appreciated as such. 

In short I think you just get more reasonable, grown ups at rugby games.   We are able of reaching the same levels of joy, frustration, even anger at times, but soon as the final whistle is blown and the result registered, rugby fans return to normality, we drink, we sing, we commiserate, we bicker,     but we don't go home and beat the wife, or wait in alley ways to stab each other.       People like this are fans of violence, and bitterness, more than they are sport.    Sport is just the vehicle, and for them the justifying factor.