On Saturday there was no atmosphere, no tension, just grandstands full of
drunk professionals in body-warmers, work shoes and 1990s boot-cut jeans.
Whatever was going on down on the pitch – and much of it was worth watching
– was lost on large swathes of Block U2 of the West Stand upper tier.
Judging by the relentless hubbub emanating from the rest of the stadium, a day
at the rugby for these “fans” is catching up with mates and
getting hammered while some big men run about in the background.
You had to feel sorry for those who were there to watch the game – you could
spot them a mile off, their eyes were on the pitch – when every 10 minutes
they’re having to stand up to let pass another goose-downed, glassy-eyed
City worker laden with four pints on a cardboard carrier soon to double up
as a frisbee.
And these are the cheap seats up in the heavens – corporate hospitality is no
excuse here.
More disclosure: I grew up in the Midlands, where if you went to a
comprehensive school in Rugby, where William Webb Ellis picked up the ball
and ran with it, football was forbidden. No school football team, nothing in
PE. Webb Ellis’s alma mater Rugby School itself included football on its
curriculum, but disparagingly referred to it as soccer.
Little surprise then, that faced with this arrogance many kids in Rugby grew
up supporting anyone who lined up against the England.
That chip on the shoulder grew every time a rugby fan would criticise
footballers’ propensity to “roll around on the floor”, argue with
referees, and celebrate goals as if they had won the World Cup. Fair points
all, but arrogant and ignorant of the fact football was professional, rugby
amateur – there was more to gain and more to lose. Anything changed in your
game, rugby fans, since turning professional?
Actually, what has changed is the players. These are true, dedicated athletes,
beasts of specimens able to produce, as England did in the first half,
stunning passing and running patterns. Billy Twelvetrees blasting through
two men to score his try was brutally impressive.
Rugby is no longer, as football fans have traditionally and unfairly surmised,
a game for those without the skill or physique to play football – it is a
proper sport now, a spectacle, worthy of respect.
Twickenham’s problem is in getting the hordes to play their part. And it is
trying, albeit in an Americanised, manufactured way.
Around the stadium prompts flash up, including “Come on England!”
and the lyrics to another toe-curling rendition of Swing Low, Sweet
Chariot. There is little in the sporting arena more sick-inducing than a
middle-aged suburban drunk adding semi-rude hand signals to “Comin’ for
to carry me home”.
That aside, these prompts do not work. If you buy into the notion that the
Twickenham crowd is a cut above most people – and the Twickenham crowd
certainly does – then these fans did not get where they are today by being
told when to cheer or sing.
Sure, when first flashed to “Respect the kicker”, the stadium went
eerily and impressively quiet. But even that did not last – before long that
same irritating hubbub took over, 10,000 conversations in a few hundred
square yards.
Twickenham’s problem against a mediocre Argentina could be that people did not
care enough – one of the biggest cheers came when David Beckham appeared on
the big screen. Only an idiot would expect the same in England’s next
friendly (as surely that’s what QBE Internationals are?) against the All
Blacks, or “most dominant team in the history of the world” as
they would sooner be known.
Twickenham should be rocking on Saturday, but through atmosphere not alcohol.
And it should be like that every match, not just for those England cannot be
sure of winning.
Football stadiums have also come in for criticism for their flatness of late,
but it is all relative. At Wembley a year ago the atmosphere during the 5-0
demolition of San Marino was far more alive than at Twickenham last weekend.
Even if we’re at Sixfields to watch Northampton Town, football fans care
deeply. Do England’s rugby fans?
International rugby needs some of football’s tension, some of its tribalism.
Home and away fans side-by-side is a lovely, cosy concept, but it does not
unite the crowd. Any football fan knows that segregation has negative
connotations, and rugby should cherish and protect its togetherness outside
the stadium, but inside Twickenham it would help create an atmosphere, a
driving force behind the team.
Too revolutionary for rugby fans? A more simple idea would be this: watch the
game, it’s quite good.
Article source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugby-league-wane-test-stars-dragons-den-130441553.html
England v New Zealand: Twickenham needs football"s tribalism - it should rock ...
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