Touchline Reflections No. 3

“Hooligans”

When I first started playing rugby, I was 8 years old and mini rugby was a fairly new concept.  The club itself was an enormous building (to an 8 year old) and one wall in the bar was covered with a vast picture of Fran Cotton – the one where his face is emerging from a sea of mud and all you can see are the whites of his eyes peering out from behind a mud-pack.  This was before the days when mud packs became a trendy way of keeping a youthful appearance and before Cotton Traders became a leading light in leisure wear. 

This is an image that has stuck in my mind for the last 30-odd years and I can tell you, from personal experience that mud-packs don’t work when combined with rugby.  If you have ever seen Fran Cotton in the flesh, you’ll understand what I mean…

Another thing that has stuck in my mind over the last three decades was encountering one of those wonderful “characters” that rugby clubs often have.  This one stood 6’ 4” in his regimental blazer, was at least 70 and had a handlebar moustache and a booming port-and-cigars voice, straight out of a WWII film – think Dam Busters or Colditz!

He bent down in front of me one day and, as if he was addressing the massed hoards of the club at their annual dinner, projected his voice straight through me to the far end of the bar – “NOW, young man!………….What you have to realise, is that SOCCER, is a Gentleman’s game played by hooligans!”  He paused just a moment too long, before continuing……”Whereas! Rugby FOOTBALL, (pause) is a hooligan’s game played by GENTLEMEN…………!”

This last word was still resonating throughout my internal organs as he stood up, performed an about-turn back to the bar and wrapped his vast, shovel-like hand around his engraved pewter tankard and immersed his moustache in the copious frothy head standing proudly atop the freshly poured pint, courtesy of my father. 

The lesson was over and the rest was up to me.  With the entire future of the game placed squarely on my small shoulders, I just wanted to go home.  My father just smiled, nodded wisely and continued to drink his freshly poured pint, leaving me to contemplate the true meaning of “Rugby”.

What often amazes people who haven’t grown up with rugby is the absence of violence in and around the game, despite the levels of overt aggression that obviously exist.  In this regard, rugby distinguishes itself significantly from soccer and most other sports, both on and off the pitch.

We now live in a world, where you can’t “just go out to play”, like we used to as kids.  As a result, today’s relatively unfit kids spend far more time trapped in the safety of their own homes and are exposed to an unrelenting stream of verbal and physical violence, whether it’s news or films on TV, or the latest computer games. 

In this context, rugby offers something of a “detox” for the mental and moral pollution our kids absorb elsewhere, whilst also providing a carefully controlled environment for physical expression and vigorous exercise.

As part-and-parcel of enjoying exercise and developing all-round levels of physical fitness, strength and co-ordination, Rugby also provides an excellent environment in which to learn some significant and important life-skills, such as: respect – for self, others and authority, self-discipline, self-control, motivation, teamwork, fairness and sportsmanship, unselfishness, leadership and accepting responsibility.

All-in all, whilst rugby is not by any means “the meaning of life”, it does provide young players with some important benefits and lessons for later life - Experience that is unlikely to be found in such abundance in almost any other sport or environment.