STEVE'S BLOG 8 - The Musings Of A Grumpy Old Prop.

Reproduced with the permission of the Cornish Pirates June 19th 2009

Steve's Blog will be a feature of the new Pirates website (coming soon), but for now everyone will have chance to read & join in here

The 'Brotherhood' Of Rugby - Can It Survive?

I don't know about you but I have always been impressed and gratified by the way in which Pirates supporters can mingle happily with opposition fans, exchange banter, beer and e-mail addresses whilst generally enjoying one another's company.

This is in marked contrast with the round ball game with its de-humanising segregation, security fences and hundreds of police on overtime. Happily this sense of rugby camaraderie is repeated at all levels - with only VERY few exceptions. Furthermore ex-players love nothing better than meeting up with old rivals and re-living past battles and the response of rugby people of all ages to seriously injured players is always truly heart warming.

Indeed this ability to find common ground with others who love our game seems to spread all over the world. I have found myself discussing Cornish rugby with total strangers in such unlikely places as in a strip joint in Tokyo, on a riverboat on the Zambesi and in the A&E ward of a hospital in New Jersey. Each time we parted company as great friends. Can any other sport achieve this to quite the same degree?

As rugby continues its wobbly progress into the world of professional sport one fears that the 'empty suits' who are paid to administer the game we love these days may lose sight of this altogether as they appear to try to be like the global business which is football. This can quickly spill over into deteriorating relationships between the elite players, administrators, media and supporters. What do I mean by this?

Top rugby players are far less accessible than just a few years ago. Touring teams like the All Blacks or the Springboks always made a long trip when they came to the UK and reached out to play midweek matches in places like Camborne, Otley, Pontypool and Hawick. People turned out in their thousands to welcome them not only onto the pitch but into their schools and homes as well.

The Lions always did likewise but what have we seen on this recent tour in South Africa? The best Springbok players were held back for special training and provincial matches were played in front of slightly bored crowds in half empty stadiums. Hmm.

For many years the only pressmen to accompany a major Lions tour were true rugby scribes like John Reason, Vivian Jenkins, Bryn Thomas and David Frost. Now there are scores of hacks all looking to blow up every minor indiscretion on or off the field - and all desperately trying to find some 'celeb' angle to justify their expenses to their editors. Once players and rugby reporters travelled, sang and ate together - now they barely acknowledge each other's existence unless there is a fee involved.

Rugby can build so many bridges given the chance. Everyone knows the familiar story of the England team going to play in Dublin at the height of 'The Troubles' in 1973 and the rapturous reception they received when several players were seriously worried if they might actually be shot at. John Pullin's famous remark in his after dinner speech "We are not much good but at least we turn up" just added the finishing touch and he is revered throughout Ireland to this day for having said it.

I only realised how deeply when I was enjoying a Guinness in the Greystones rugby club on the outskirts of Dublin many years later. A gnarled old lock with cauliflower ears said to me "If they hadn't come our sport might have died in Ireland and with it the Five (as it then was) Nations too. We all owe so much to those guys". As he said it his eyes filled with tears and I found myself staring hard at the floor.

On another occasion, as part of my job, I was visiting a factory in Port Elizabeth at the time Nelson Mandela had just been released. I was told that the local Trade Union leaders wanted to meet me and I was ushered into a room containing three rather surly looking Xhosas who spoke very limited English.

As we shook hands I noticed that their leader was wearing a small British Lions rugby lapel badge. Grasping at a straw for something to say, I asked him if he was keen on rugby. At this point he broke out into a dazzling smile and told me excitedly how he had played for the Leopards against the 1974 Lions and that the badge had been given to him by Andy Irvine himself. Industrial relations took a huge leap forward that day!

So whether it is just giving a true Cornish welcome to visiting supporters at Camborne or merely retaining a respectful silence when the opposing fly-half is trying to kick a goal, you are doing your bit to somehow keep this precious and possibly unique spirit alive.

Once it is allowed to die - believe me - it will never come back.