This post is inspired by those passionate, deluded and ultimately disappointed Rebels supporters who turned up in Melbourne last Friday night for the Rebels first ever game in full team kit. As Rugby tragics go they were pretty easy to pick, though the fact they were holding scarves up in the air soccer style hints at maybe some Victory rent-a-crowd being thrown a few bucks to cheer another code.
So how do you spot a Rugby tragic or know if you're one?...
1) You turn up to your teams' first ever match with your face painted in team colours and wearing the full and expensive supporters kit. And you're over 15 years old.
2) You know the words and tune to the team song despite the team never having played a game. And you sing it.
3) You record every match of the round. And watch them all by Monday and it's not your job to do so.
4) You know every Rugby referee signal and what he awarded scrum penalties for.
5) You've kept your old videos for your annual showing of every match of the Wallabies 1984 Grand Slam Tour, and watch them even if no one accepts your invitation to join you (again).
6) You're a member of a suburban Rugby Club. And you go to matches. And you watch for the game, not for the business connections.
7) You spend hundreds of dollars flying to obscure cities, like Melbourne, to watch your team play.
8) You willingly purchase tickets behind the goal posts in the obscure hope that a player will high five you, or even better hug you, after scoring a try. Or to sledge Matt Dunning (guilty).
9) You can argue at length about the relative merits of Rugby over other codes despite never having played the game.
10) You run a Rugby tipping competition and a Rugby blog (guilty).
11) You know where all the South African Super Rugby teams are from.
12) You know what Griquas are.
13) You remember when Stirling Mortlock and Nathan Sharpe had hair.
So how do you spot a Rugby tragic or know if you're one?...
1) You turn up to your teams' first ever match with your face painted in team colours and wearing the full and expensive supporters kit. And you're over 15 years old.
2) You know the words and tune to the team song despite the team never having played a game. And you sing it.
3) You record every match of the round. And watch them all by Monday and it's not your job to do so.
4) You know every Rugby referee signal and what he awarded scrum penalties for.
5) You've kept your old videos for your annual showing of every match of the Wallabies 1984 Grand Slam Tour, and watch them even if no one accepts your invitation to join you (again).
6) You're a member of a suburban Rugby Club. And you go to matches. And you watch for the game, not for the business connections.
7) You spend hundreds of dollars flying to obscure cities, like Melbourne, to watch your team play.
8) You willingly purchase tickets behind the goal posts in the obscure hope that a player will high five you, or even better hug you, after scoring a try. Or to sledge Matt Dunning (guilty).
9) You can argue at length about the relative merits of Rugby over other codes despite never having played the game.
10) You run a Rugby tipping competition and a Rugby blog (guilty).
11) You know where all the South African Super Rugby teams are from.
12) You know what Griquas are.
13) You remember when Stirling Mortlock and Nathan Sharpe had hair.
Comments
Cricket blogger has just returned from two weeks in the mother country! After a week without any sunlight, my thoughts quickly turned to rugby. Some key highlights:
1. Six nations stoush between England and France was an old fashioned slug it out battle with England the victor in the end. The real battle was off the field before the match and clearly won by the French. French coach Marc Lievremont said "We don't really like them (the English), and its better to say that than be hypocritical. We respect them, well in my case at least I respect them, but you couldn't say we have the slightest thing in common with them. We appreciate our Italian cousins with whom we share the same quality of life, we appreciate the Celts and their conviviality.. among all these nations we have one huge thing in common: we don't like the English." A day or so later he was asked at a press conference about whether he had taken his copy of Winston Churchill's biography to England. He said no as although it was helping him to understand the English better, he was starting to like them and thought it best to leave the book at home!
2. The impending royal marriage is dominating the news and the souvenir stands. And yes I did resist picking up a Kate and Will side plate, coffee mug, tea towel or my favourite the his and hers Royal garden gnome. The real royal wedding story is that Mike Tindall has been asked to have a nose job prior to marrying Princess Anne's daughter. As the patron of Scottish Rugby and a noted "fashion plate" it is a big ask thinking that she can instruct an English player to have cosmetic surgery more than 200 years after the the Acts of Union when Scotland ceded power to the English!
3. Ireland beating England in the World Cup cricket - a truly beautiful thing that would warm the heart of a Churchillian such as Marc Lievremont!
PS as the one of the few rugby tragics in the most isolated capital city in the World i.e. Perth I may have to jot down a few lines about that team called the Force over the course of the season.
Cricket blogger