So why do I love rugby so much?  I'll tell you why; Rugby is a real sport filled with suspense, skill and entertainment.  Rugby players get bloody injuries, break bones and still continue to play.  Sometimes  having to be dragged off the pitch due to the injury but not wanting to leave the game.  Rugby shows what sportsmen are really made of. 

 

Football appears to incite violence and hatred in many supporters, causing behaviour detrimental to society.   Rugby supporters on the other hand are a friendly crowd, capable of sitting next to an opposition supporter in the stands and even cheering a bit of good play by the other team.  This trend cannot simply be boxed into the “lower socio-economic background of football supporters” line as it simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. The fact is that it is the nature of the game that induces the violence, not the background of its supporters.  For instance, Rugby is a working class game throughout all the pacific islands, Wales and New Zealand, yet there is no documented fan violence of any significance in any of these areas, but can be readily found among the archives of football matches.

What is critical here is that rugby provides a broader avenue for vicarious satisfaction of the game than football.  The missing vicarious outlets in football mean it has a number of “tension inducing factors” that are far more likely to illicit violent responses in its fans than can be found in rugby. There are three important points that contribute to this:

 

1.  Football has only one method of scoring and is structured so as to encourage defensive attitudes, making it a generally very low scoring sport;

 

2.  the sport offers no contact of significance and thus violence is eviscerated from the game, while it is legislated in Rugby.  This means that while football players are free to embellish the slightest shoulder nudge as if it were a gunshot wound, the same action in rugby would see you lined up for a proper injury the next time you held the ball.  The latter is extremely satisfying for the fans, as it represents a kind of “on-field justice”, while in football the injustice of the original embellishment (which often results in the red carding of a player who has done nothing wrong) is left unresolved, leading the fans to simmer with rage;

 

3.   Finally, the lack of technologically assisted officiating, in spite of increased video coverage and scrutiny, has given rise to a situation when every spectator in almost any position on the planet has a clear view in slow motion of the referees every mistake and thus the feeling of injustice is compounded.  Rugby, to be sure, has controversial decisions, but with the aid of video officials the number is far less than can be found in football. The above demonstrates that football is far more likely to lead supporters to a breaking point in which violent acts are likely to occur.

 

You watch rugby and it has character, it has suspense, it is always different and you never know what is going to happen. It is an amazing sport to watch and play and the nation should pay more attention to it.

 

The sheer change in international perception that would result from the travels of rugby fans rather than football would be enormous.  Can you imagine it?  Lawyers, bankers, business execs  drinking merrily and tipping waiters instead of p***ing in the streets and trashing historic capitals.