The Beautiful Game

[DC]

The whistle blows on another brilliant night of rugby union, and 30 men of varying height, weight, race, and nationality walk off the pitch. After a fast, ferocious, and intense rugby match, the players show the upmost respect for the opposition with handshakes, trading of shirts, or even clapping the visiting team off the pitch.

But, what is the beautiful game? Certainly not a sport in which diving, cheating, bribing, and dirty tactics are widely accepted as part of the game. Certainly not a sport in which sportsmanship seems to only influence a few players and is only carried out by managers as a source of good media. Certainly not a sport in which a team is made up of 11 individuals. Certainly not football.

The beautiful game is rugby football, whether it be rugby union or rugby league. Where it is purely a gentlemans sport both on and off the pitch. Sure there will be a few odd punchups when the physicality reaches a climax, but even when situtations like this do happen they are quickly dispersed and quickly disciplined, and after the game the guys involved will most likely share a beer.. or two.. or three.

Rugby Football a sport where 13 (league) and 15 (union) men have one heartbeat, one dream, one goal. A fantastic spectacle where each player plays for the person standing next to him and vise versa. Putting their body on the line so that the person next to them could score a try, or so that their team can reach that one goal, and that one dream. Rugby emphasizes what teamwork is all about, it is making that one sacrifice to spring another player, or putting ones safety on the line as to see his club win that crucial match.

Is the beautiful game a game in which a player puts himself above his teammates and his club or is it a game in which one player is a piece to a puzzle and without the rest of his teammates nothing will get accomplished. Which is the beautiful game?

I know which one I'd pick any day. Rugby Football.

 

[Bullitt]

Nicely put, and very poetic at that!

 

[Caledfwlch]

:wah: :wah: :wah: :wah: :wah: :wah: :wah: :wah:

im so bloody touched

 

[RoyalBlueStuey]

A touch one eyed don't you think? Verging on snobbery I'd say.

You extol the virtues of teamwork as if they are they don't apply to footy. Nonsense. Why in footy can you get giant-killing acts whereas in rugby they are as rare as hens teeth. In footy you have amateurs taking on the giants of the game as equals year in year out. In rugby the grass roots are shunned by the elite as beneath them.

And as for sportsmanship what about the innumerable bits of sly petty violence that go on in most rugby matches...let alone the outright assaults that get sited? Ah right that's all just a good laugh and doesn't count.

I am not for a second slagging off rugger but let's get it into perspective...for every soccer player's dive there's an opposition kicking the ball out to allow an injured player treatment. I was in the crowd for that DiCanio game when he spurned a scoring chance 'cause our keeper had injured himself....something truly amazing.

Everything you've said about rugby could be applied to footy plus soccer is played in every corner of the globe by people from all background. From favellas in Rio and strips of dirt in Africa right up to the Neu Camp in Barcelona, an instituion that recently payed UNICEF to sponsor them....more than a club.

Rugby like it or not is an elitist game.

 

[melon]

DC - That was a wonderful piece of writing.

RoyalBlueStuey - Great comeback!

I agree with everything you both say in one way or another and there is one thing i would like to address which you have both touched on: Non-Sportsmanship or if you like, dirty play.
All codes have an element of it. Whether it be in soccer/wogball/football where someone will take a dive and act like a total f***wit, or in Rugby Union or Rugby League where someone will ruck an opponent illegally, its an element of all games and always will be. There's no use in comparing codes with foul play because they all encompass it.

All the same, that was a beautiful piece DC! !

 

[Caledfwlch]

A touch one eyed don't you think? Verging on snobbery I'd say.

You extol the virtues of teamwork as if they are they don't apply to footy. Nonsense. Why in footy can you get giant-killing acts whereas in rugby they are as rare as hens teeth. In footy you have amateurs taking on the giants of the game as equals year in year out. In rugby the grass roots are shunned by the elite as beneath them.

And as for sportsmanship what about the innumerable bits of sly petty violence that go on in most rugby matches...let alone the outright assaults that get sited? Ah right that's all just a good laugh and doesn't count.

I am not for a second slagging off rugger but let's get it into perspective...for every soccer player's dive there's an opposition kicking the ball out to allow an injured player treatment. I was in the crowd for that DiCanio game when he spurned a scoring chance 'cause our keeper had injured himself....something truly amazing.

Everything you've said about rugby could be applied to footy plus soccer is played in every corner of the globe by people from all background. From favellas in Rio and strips of dirt in Africa right up to the Neu Camp in Barcelona, an instituion that recently payed UNICEF to sponsor them....more than a club.

Rugby like it or not is an elitist game.
[/b]

go watch the youtube video about rugby vs soccer. soccer is a really great sport, i'll give you that. but its played by pansies who drop dead if you so much as touch them. its GAY! now tell me how come our players just stand straight back up after a huge smother tackle or a collapsed maul

 

[BigTen]

"...but its played by pansies who drop dead if you so much as touch them..." Caledfwlch

That's a pretty tough call, I think.

The problem that football has at the moment is that players are generally rewarded for taking drives etc. If they manage to fool the referees into giving crucial penalties or sending players off they get a huge reward. A reward that could prove to be the winning of the match. However if they get caught they worst that they are looking at is a yellow card and that just means that they have to stay out of trouble for the rest of the match.

So the risk v reward is way in favour of the reward and that is why players keep on doing it.

The referees need to be in better positions and they need to crack down on diving, simulation, time-wasting, swearing and all of the other things that hurt football and football's image.

It is creeping into other sports - living in Melbourne I get to hear it said about Aussie Rules all the time and I even see it creeping into rugby at times. Watch how some teams always seem to have a tight-five player injured just before a scrum at a crucial time of the game and watch their miracle "cure" happen once their team-mates have had a chance for a breather. It is obvious that football has a huge problem - moreso than other sports but don't think for a single second that it is solely a football problem.

And back to the point on footballers being soft - I would only think that ignorant people would either say that or believe it. You prepare yourself for the individual sport and condition yourself accordingly. Footballers, especially midfielders have to cover a lot of ground and they have to do it quickly and therefore they will tend to be fairly light - 70-80kg on average. They also need to have a much wider skill-set range and as such will simply not have the time to bulk up to 100kg plus at the gym.

A rugby player, especially a forward, needs to be heavily built and strong and will therefore spend less time on building skill than they would on pushing iron at the gym.

Does anyone honestly believe that had footballers like Roy Keane, Robbie Savage, Sol Campbel etc, etc been rugby fans rather than football fans that they would not have made it into a highly competitive level of rugby?

 

[RoyalBlueStuey]

They are both fantastic games...comparing the two groups of players is very difficult. The footy players have been brought up on a game were you are allowed to move almost un-impeding, rugby is all about coming together with the opponent and breaking away/taking him down.

Okay, that makes them, by their very nature, soft. If they bulked up to be tougher they'd be less mobile. As BigTen says you get people like Keane, Campbell or Viera they are just born athletes...they'd have been good at whatever sport they fell into. It works the other way...Everton's James Vaughan was apparently better at rugby before he had to make the decision to go with Preston Grasshoppers or The Toffees.

As I say I love both games....I'd never write one off in favour of another.

I think a good way to think about it is this :

If I was commanding an army I'd have my generals & majors playing cricket, my captains & lieutenants playing football and my enlisted men playing rugby.

 

[BigTen]

"...my enlisted men playing rugby..." RoyalBlueStuey.

From playing both sports you realise how much you rely on your team-mates in rugby. If everybody isn't working together it will all very bad. Whereas in football you do seem to get away with it a little more. Obviously the higher level of football you play the less likely you will get away with it.

To be successful in rugby you have to have the team working as one whereas in football individual skill can prove the difference.

 

[Caledfwlch]

"...but its played by pansies who drop dead if you so much as touch them..." Caledfwlch

That's a pretty tough call, I think.

The problem that football has at the moment is that players are generally rewarded for taking drives etc. If they manage to fool the referees into giving crucial penalties or sending players off they get a huge reward. A reward that could prove to be the winning of the match. However if they get caught they worst that they are looking at is a yellow card and that just means that they have to stay out of trouble for the rest of the match.

So the risk v reward is way in favour of the reward and that is why players keep on doing it.

The referees need to be in better positions and they need to crack down on diving, simulation, time-wasting, swearing and all of the other things that hurt football and football's image.

It is creeping into other sports - living in Melbourne I get to hear it said about Aussie Rules all the time and I even see it creeping into rugby at times. Watch how some teams always seem to have a tight-five player injured just before a scrum at a crucial time of the game and watch their miracle "cure" happen once their team-mates have had a chance for a breather. It is obvious that football has a huge problem - moreso than other sports but don't think for a single second that it is solely a football problem.

And back to the point on footballers being soft - I would only think that ignorant people would either say that or believe it. You prepare yourself for the individual sport and condition yourself accordingly. Footballers, especially midfielders have to cover a lot of ground and they have to do it quickly and therefore they will tend to be fairly light - 70-80kg on average. They also need to have a much wider skill-set range and as such will simply not have the time to bulk up to 100kg plus at the gym.

A rugby player, especially a forward, needs to be heavily built and strong and will therefore spend less time on building skill than they would on pushing iron at the gym.

Does anyone honestly believe that had footballers like Roy Keane, Robbie Savage, Sol Campbel etc, etc been rugby fans rather than football fans that they would not have made it into a highly competitive level of rugby?
[/b]

i laughed really loudly when i thought of roy keane playing rugby.think of all the swearing and deliberate punchups he'd be getting into, not to mentiopn the secret punches at the breakdown, and stamping on people's knees. man that sounds like just what he did at Man U

 

[Gay-Guy]

Roy Keane would be well behaved if he were a rugby player.

...either that or he would be taking deiberate dives at the first sign of trouble.

 

[Caledfwlch]

not to mention the new swearwords he'd be putting up for the english language

 

[RoyalBlueStuey]

...either that or he would be taking deiberate dives at the first sign of trouble.
[/b]

Do you know which Roy Keane we are talking about?

I hated the ******* but he wasn't a diver.