Careful now. I heard Blooms is also going to subject Wycombe players to the sound of babies crying in preparation for the Oxford and Bristol Rovers games. It can be hard to replicate that level of whining, though.
Strange, isn't it, how this 'not a real sport' can stage arguably the 5th or 6th largest sporting tournament in the world, with 20 countries competing in the 2023 RWC starting in September, and 5 of those countries in with a realistic chance of winning the cup (that doesn't include Wales). The expected global audience is over 1 billion.
You must have been one of those speccy geeks at RGS who hid behind matron's skirts on games afternoons.
I grew up on a grim council estate, Chas, so it may be a bit simplistic to assume anyone who likes rugby ticks off the stereotyped boxes above while the working classes are all doughty chimney sweeps who cannot appreciate a variety of sports. I still don't get why rugby sets everyone off so much. It's not my favorite sport, but I don't see puppies being run over in the playing of it. Everyone falling over themselves to say it is not a sport is genuinely one of the oddest things I have seen on the Gasroom, like there is some strange, esoteric knowledge I am missing.
Has half the forum experienced a shared nightmare where giant rugby balls chase them down dark alleyways, chanting "I'm gonna getcha" in low, threatening tones? Even if not, safe to say I will be imagining this from now on. I might even reply "I'm gonna getcha" every time someone says rugby is not a sport.
In part I do wonder whether some of the clear dislike for the (fine in my opinion) sport of Rugby Union on here does go back to the damage Wasps caused to us as a club.
I do have to agree though as an active participant in my late teens/early 20s in Norfolk it was a very class-ridden sport (in my case mainly Young Farmers) and an uncomfortable sense that off the pitch after games they had an entitlement to do what they liked.
I do think football is the greatest sport, but I also find it amusing in the context of this thread that Old Etonians have a couple of FA Cups in the trophy cabinet.
Have to be careful with descriptions of course. I remember someone sneered at Basketball as being a sport you only need to watch the last minute or so of. But then a huge amount of football games are settled as late.
But no rival fan ever accused us of punting the ball out the whole time. Wrestling maybe.
Probably because it's the least like usual rugby, in that you don't have massive stocky oafs smashing people all game, you don't have punting it into touch, and the players are typically super athletic and you get the "best" bits, running rugby with lots of tries.
But then if I have to watch cricket it'd be the limited over shorter games. Cutting out hours and days of almost nothing happening. When you see fans in the crowd with newspapers not even watching the game for long spells it speaks volumes.
Association Football was very elitist to start with too, the professional era being ushered in by northern mill owners and the like wanting to recruit the best players from other regions, Rugby Union held out for a long old while without acknowledging under the table payments and owners giving players jobs rather than openly paying them.
Rugby’s problem is that its rules are almost impenetrable to the casual observer. Football’s beauty is that two kids on The Rye can be Sam Vokes and GMac.
The rules of rugby - actually the laws of the game - are simple enough. If you imagine a horizontal line through the ball across the width of the pitch, that is effectively the offside line, and players have to stay their own side of the line.
After England won the RWC in 2003, the kids at our local park could be seen forming a lineout, and throwing a rugby ball in to the tallest one being lifted in the air.
I must admit I was ready to be converted, but I found the only Wasps game I attended (free tickets v Newcastle - I think) quite tedious and unengaging...even when compared to our (then) L2 games.
The rules of rugby - actually the laws of the game - are simple enough. If you imagine a horizontal line through the ball across the width of the pitch, that is effectively the offside line, and players have to stay their own side of the line.
They could all just sit down in their own half and have a picnic then.
For what it is worth, I quite rugby on the TV but struggle with it on the few occasions I have watched live due to the difficulty in following what is going on. But frankly who cares? There is far too much negativity, division and conflict in our world. If you prefer football to rugby, watch football, if you prefer rugby to football, watch rugby. If you want to watch them both that's cool too. Doesn't affect me in any way so crack on. And once you have finished no reason not to shake hands and share a beer.
If no-one cared or did not want to be divisive and negative about sport, the Gasroom would be a completely different place. Puns, badges and music picks. 😁
For me it is not the hating of rugby that is the issue, it is that it would be rather simple to add "...that I personally enjoy/like/gravitate towards" to the sentence "Rugby is not a sport", and sound like a grown up human being. I am not the world's biggest rugby fan, but as a middle aged man, having a casual conversation about the Rugby World Cup policed by some kind of weird grudge holder complete with class based insults is embarrassing...and not for me.
Comments
Careful now. I heard Blooms is also going to subject Wycombe players to the sound of babies crying in preparation for the Oxford and Bristol Rovers games. It can be hard to replicate that level of whining, though.
Strange, isn't it, how this 'not a real sport' can stage arguably the 5th or 6th largest sporting tournament in the world, with 20 countries competing in the 2023 RWC starting in September, and 5 of those countries in with a realistic chance of winning the cup (that doesn't include Wales). The expected global audience is over 1 billion.
You must have been one of those speccy geeks at RGS who hid behind matron's skirts on games afternoons.
I'm hoping Ireland can win the whole thing (Dad's side of the family is Irish), but it is a brutal route.
And you must have been one of those egg-chasing pricks who thought themselves superior to everyone else.
Ireland are currently #1 in the world rankings, and third favourite to win, behind France and New Zealand.
But they have never gone beyond the quarter-final stage in previous RWCs, so it's time for this 'golden generation' to step up.
It would nice to see a new winner no matter what!
Maybe those that have a fetish for egg chasing, should start up a seperate thread, so as us Sports lovers can avoid.
Maybe a good title would be Elite and cruel pastimes.
Where people could discuss
Rugby
Fox hunting
Soggy biscuit
Grouse shooting
I grew up on a grim council estate, Chas, so it may be a bit simplistic to assume anyone who likes rugby ticks off the stereotyped boxes above while the working classes are all doughty chimney sweeps who cannot appreciate a variety of sports. I still don't get why rugby sets everyone off so much. It's not my favorite sport, but I don't see puppies being run over in the playing of it. Everyone falling over themselves to say it is not a sport is genuinely one of the oddest things I have seen on the Gasroom, like there is some strange, esoteric knowledge I am missing.
Has half the forum experienced a shared nightmare where giant rugby balls chase them down dark alleyways, chanting "I'm gonna getcha" in low, threatening tones? Even if not, safe to say I will be imagining this from now on. I might even reply "I'm gonna getcha" every time someone says rugby is not a sport.
For a lot of us rugby and football are simply absolute opposites. You like one or the other.
I just don't get it. A game where you spend half of it wrestling and half of it intentionally punting it into touch.
You can score using the full width of the goal line and it's impossible to stop someone taking a kick as it counts however high over it goes.
Just truly bizarre stuff.
In part I do wonder whether some of the clear dislike for the (fine in my opinion) sport of Rugby Union on here does go back to the damage Wasps caused to us as a club.
I do have to agree though as an active participant in my late teens/early 20s in Norfolk it was a very class-ridden sport (in my case mainly Young Farmers) and an uncomfortable sense that off the pitch after games they had an entitlement to do what they liked.
I do think football is the greatest sport, but I also find it amusing in the context of this thread that Old Etonians have a couple of FA Cups in the trophy cabinet.
That's true, I should have differentiated - Rugby League is alright, although I don't actively watch it.
"A game where you spend half of it wrestling and half of it intentionally punting it into touch"
How opposition fans claimed we played under Ainsworth
They have a brutal draw. I don't think they'll get past the quarter finals
Have to be careful with descriptions of course. I remember someone sneered at Basketball as being a sport you only need to watch the last minute or so of. But then a huge amount of football games are settled as late.
But no rival fan ever accused us of punting the ball out the whole time. Wrestling maybe.
The best form of rugby in my opinion is the 7s.
Probably because it's the least like usual rugby, in that you don't have massive stocky oafs smashing people all game, you don't have punting it into touch, and the players are typically super athletic and you get the "best" bits, running rugby with lots of tries.
But then if I have to watch cricket it'd be the limited over shorter games. Cutting out hours and days of almost nothing happening. When you see fans in the crowd with newspapers not even watching the game for long spells it speaks volumes.
Association Football was very elitist to start with too, the professional era being ushered in by northern mill owners and the like wanting to recruit the best players from other regions, Rugby Union held out for a long old while without acknowledging under the table payments and owners giving players jobs rather than openly paying them.
Rugby’s problem is that its rules are almost impenetrable to the casual observer. Football’s beauty is that two kids on The Rye can be Sam Vokes and GMac.
I think it also suffers from the fact you can't actually see the ball half the time
Don't let RC see this...
The rules of rugby - actually the laws of the game - are simple enough. If you imagine a horizontal line through the ball across the width of the pitch, that is effectively the offside line, and players have to stay their own side of the line.
After England won the RWC in 2003, the kids at our local park could be seen forming a lineout, and throwing a rugby ball in to the tallest one being lifted in the air.
I must admit I was ready to be converted, but I found the only Wasps game I attended (free tickets v Newcastle - I think) quite tedious and unengaging...even when compared to our (then) L2 games.
The rules of rugby - actually the laws of the game - are simple enough. If you imagine a horizontal line through the ball across the width of the pitch, that is effectively the offside line, and players have to stay their own side of the line.
They could all just sit down in their own half and have a picnic then.
For what it is worth, I quite rugby on the TV but struggle with it on the few occasions I have watched live due to the difficulty in following what is going on. But frankly who cares? There is far too much negativity, division and conflict in our world. If you prefer football to rugby, watch football, if you prefer rugby to football, watch rugby. If you want to watch them both that's cool too. Doesn't affect me in any way so crack on. And once you have finished no reason not to shake hands and share a beer.
Where was your local park, Farnham Royal, Henley ?
I have never witnessed a sporadic or off the cuff game off egg chasing in any Park, and long may that continue.
Was intrigued how you'd enter this debate, as you normally take the opposite view to the general flow.
So as some hate it, and some love it, no wonder you took the middle fence ground 😂
If no-one cared or did not want to be divisive and negative about sport, the Gasroom would be a completely different place. Puns, badges and music picks. 😁
I like the posters who constantly slate all sorts of music, yet refuse to pin point their own taste.
For me it is not the hating of rugby that is the issue, it is that it would be rather simple to add "...that I personally enjoy/like/gravitate towards" to the sentence "Rugby is not a sport", and sound like a grown up human being. I am not the world's biggest rugby fan, but as a middle aged man, having a casual conversation about the Rugby World Cup policed by some kind of weird grudge holder complete with class based insults is embarrassing...and not for me.
Dressage is not a sport.