Rugby World Cup 2023/ Crochet & Knitting chit chat

6067

What a confused and joyless bunch rugby haters must be

Exultation greeted the score against New Zealand in certain quarters

Amid the disappointment of Ireland losing to New Zealand last Saturday in the World Cup quarter-final, it was telling to see social media do what it is best at doing – leading the cheer with a gleeful dose of reverse snobbery.

Taking immense pleasure in watching an Irish rugby team lose is a phenomenon that has been around for some time, although it still looks and feels just as distressed as it always has done.

Occasionally rugby does not help itself. Emphasising that it is not soccer and that it (like soccer) has laws not rules are just two pompous positions that the sport insists on adopting. But calling out rugby for aspects that might have people holding their noses seems qualitatively different from holding the entire sport in contempt.

The exultation and exuberance that greeted a defeat to New Zealand that had Ireland packing their bags in Paris was something to behold. There were elements of highlighting the school you went to, the fact that mainly former British colonies play the sport and stuff about Mack Hansen, Jamison Gibson-Park and Bundee Aki not being Irish anyway – the blood-and-soil keyboard ideologues being such a busy bunch.

Outpouring of animosity

Then there are the “sporting reasons only” haters. International rugby isn’t competitive. The same teams keep winning the competitions and the smaller nations like Portugal, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Romania are just thrown in as fodder for the stronger nations to beat to a pulp and feel superior about doing so.

It sure is a strange kind of mindset that equally dislikes Keith Earls and Ronan Kelleher, although one was sent to a fee-paying school in Dublin and the other was brought up in a working-class Limerick neighbourhood.

That the two have dedicated a large chunk of their lives to training, playing and putting their bodies on the line for Ireland didn’t override the outpouring of animosity on social media when New Zealand’s Sam Whitelock finally turned the ball over three minutes into overtime last weekend.

Speaking on the radio, former Irish outhalf Ronan O’Gara touched on the issue, but suggested that any antipathy might have dissipated somewhat with the current crop. “You can see the way some people don’t like the Irish rugby team . . . what Ireland are doing at the minute is very appealing to the normal Joe Soap, because they can see a team that is genuine, normal, that represents the working-class people of Ireland as opposed to just the elite private schools,” he said.

O’Gara highlighted that you can dislike a team for whatever reason you want. Many people would disagree with his point and leave it at that. Others would disagree with his point and hate the sport because of it.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Anyone can pick a characteristic, decide they hate it and them decide to hate a team that bears that same trait. Taking carte blanche to separate sports according to their traits, then deciding to love or hate them because of those traits is the perfect self-fulfilling prophecy.

Being the number one team in the world for the last number of months and arriving at the World Cup as one of the favourites to win made Ireland an even bigger target than previously. When they fell, the fall was from a greater height and the sound hitting the ground was louder.

To the rugby haters, who couldn’t stomach Ireland’s pool progress or the praise being heaped on captain Johnny Sexton, the tumble from pool winners to being out of the tournament was almost like God putting a thumb on the scales.

It is open to question whether it is a lonely place delighting in an Irish rugby team getting beaten, a team that is more diverse now than it has ever been and managed by a north of England man who used to play rugby league for Wigan, a coach whose strength, pride and values all come directly from growing up and playing with working-class people.

Hate is something that is not only hard to shake off but intensifies over time. Taking pleasure from a national rugby team being beaten seems such a joyless bit of craic.

Johnny Watterson

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6068

House private

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6069

Would it help if they got rid of the middle initials when announcing the team I wonder?

6070

Here’s the team announcement from last week and not a single middle initial in sight …

6071

Finally. Can you keep an eye on it and see if it creeps back in?

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6072

It’s gone a long time. If you want to take the piss out of the rugby lads maybe try use something which actually still happens.

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6073

Fixed

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6074

It’s very harsh but Kellerher going on a solo when he got held up was a poor decision.

They should have kept going in the maul as the new goal line drop outs means getting held up is a disaster.

We’d already gotten a penalty try and a yellow card from this scenario.

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6075

Are you sure? What do you classify as a longtime?

6076

Listen mate, nows not the time for slating fellas, and if we are, can we spell their names correctly please?

6077

Anger is an easier emotion to express than grief. Lads need to heal now.

6078

It’s absolutely sickening. I find this time of year really shite and would have a tremendous distraction for the next two weeks. Pubs and restaurants would be packed and people would be generally on a bit of a high country wide.

It would have been some boost to the economy.

Sport is always a welcome distraction from the real world.

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6079
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6080

You need to address the issue, not look for a distraction from it. A distraction will only push the issue further down the road, and not actually address and solve it.

6081

They just want to be loved. Aww bless.

6082

Long enough to not be relevant today or to have anything to do with the current Rugby World Cup.

6083

I wonder how it went down with the supporters, some of them really reveled in that sort of thing. One lad here really got off on it.

6084

I mentioned this the other day & got a plethora of “likes” from rubby & non-rubby posters. I live for that kind of gratification so it was a tremendous boost to my self esteem.

But I wanted to explore another aspect of it. Would Kelleher’s “miss” be the equivalent of missing an open goal from 4 or 5 yards out in football or would that be harsh? What would the equivalent be?

I was also wondering to myself (despite being a lay man, I think about rubby deeply in my own time) would those inside rubby circles be strongly critical of Kelleher and pillory him? Or is it held up (excuse the pun) as a great defensive play & it wouldn’t necessarily follow him around for the rest of his career? Obviously there’s not that type of personal criticism in rubby media but I wondered how this would be perceived inside rubby?

Would it not be considered embarrassing for Kelleher to get held up by a back in a pseudo judo move given he was a hooker not long off the bench who should have a freshness & strength advantage over a back who’d been up & down the field all game?

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6085

What’s his delusion to your mind?

6086

We weren’t properly prepared. We were better prepared than previous World Cups, but there were massive problems at out half that were obvious from 4 years ago and weren’t properly addressed.