By Ajack
July 16 2002

Sportsmanship and standards within rugby. There is little doubt that rugby is becoming more popular to the masses and whilst this generates greater income, will it’s own popularity stop it being the game we love so much? Do we actually go to watch a good game of rugby or do we go to watch Saints win? Not very often now do you see the set of supporters from one team actually applaud good play by the opposition, does it matter or are some standards best upheld? As with cricket when the fielding team will applaud a batsman who has just scored a century, would it be a bad thing if the “tunnel” at the end of the game were to disappear? A general lack of respect for a team is creeping in more and more, with booing at penalties, idiots crying “get on with it” when players are clearly injured (not just wasting time), booing ex players from the club (something I must say I have never heard Saints fans do) and my pet hate the booing of other countries nation anthems.

When I started playing you NEVER questioned the referees decision, your captain or pack leader could clarify what the decision was for but not question it, if you did you were smartly marched back ten yards. Now it seems everyman and his dog has a say, is this just “playing to the ref” or is it the thin end of the wedge leading to what we see in soccer with crowds of players crowding around the ref and arguing his every decision?

With so many people now owning season tickets (myself included) vast amounts of the ground are now not available to away supporters, this prevents the old style banter between opposing fans and leads to far more tribal chanting, does this just create a good atmosphere or is it again the thin end of the wedge? Before you answer doesn’t forget last year in C block there was the beer throwing and also racial abuse.

My final point is “gamesmanship” the pretending to have been shot when someone comes near someone who has just put in an up and under and the well documented hand of Back incident, to give just two examples, are these really sending out the right signals to youngsters about rugby and life in general? Compare that to the Scottish open when Romero was one shot behind playing the seventeenth, his opponent hit his ball into the rough by a stream; he had effectively lost his ball and the competition. He had no need to do anything or he could have made a token effort, knowing this would “look good” but still help him win, but no he actively looked for the ball and found it, increasing his chances of losing (he did go on to win). What made him do that? Did he not want to win? I don’t think so, no professional sportsman likes losing. Was there no incentive? Apart from the winning the difference in prize money between first and second was £125,000. Or was it just that his best was good enough to beat somebody else’s best on a given day in a fairly fought battle, the best way to win anything.

So is the sport going out of rugby, if so I think we are all losers.

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