My darkest memory of schoolboy rugby is being isolated, petrified, deep in my own 22′, waiting for a massive “up and under” to come down in the first minute of the schools’ cup final in Lansdowne Road. I sensed the Terenure pack coming up at me like a thundering herd, intent on clobbering me. The ball took ages. The wind caught it and seemed – cruelly – to suspend it above me, swirling. And still they advanced. I could feel my Blackrock teammates looking at me.
Don’t drop it; please don’t knock-on, not now, not here.
This was the final.
Worse still, it was Terenure.
Michaels, Belvo, Clongowes, Marys – they hardly mattered. What mattered was ‘Nure. We knew it, they knew it, the crowd knew it: the greatest rivalry in schools’ rugby was ‘Rock v ‘Nure.
It was Dublin v Kerry, United v City, Kilkenny v Tipp all rolled into one. It didn’t get bigger than this and now I was the last line of the Blackrock defence, being targeted by the ‘Nure out-half. He knew I didn’t like getting hurt; they’d watched the video and they’d done their homework!
I thought about volleying it in to touch like a soccer player, which I had done before, but never in a final, and what would the purists say? I could see the lights of old West Upper in Lansdowne Road as it then was as I waited for this dot in the sky to get bigger and bigger, closer and closer.
Gravity got the better of it and miraculously, there it was, the match-ball in my hands, both hands, no fumbles, no knock-on. I could hear the ‘Rock boys cheering.
Game on. Time to fly.
School rugby was a hoot. I enjoyed it tremendously and as a back on a Blackrock team all the way through secondary school, you thought you were handy because most of the time we were going forward. Rugby is easy when you have momentum, the line in your sight and a pack of forwards who could kick 40 shades out of anyone.
Despite this be-knighted experience, I do remember one downside of playing full back or winger was having to listen to rugby bores on the sidelines. Typically, these were Dads or past-pupils who had never played and yet they roared instructions. As I was usually the closest to them and on my own at the back, I tended to get, not just a general lesson in how the game should be played, but a personal grind.
I thought these people were consigned to history but last Saturday at Thomond Park, Limerick, I had one right behind me, in my ear, all match. You know the lads with the referees’ ear thingy, the fellas who know everything and if only they were on the pitch, Munster would have destroyed Clermont. I must admit I was impressed by his extraordinary vocabulary. One of the things that has definitely changed since I was subjected to the wisdom of this class of Alickadoo, is the intricate language that now surrounds rugby commentary. Today’s rugby lexicon is a complex form of linguistic hieroglyphics, accessible to only the most committed Alickadoo. There are specific terms that can only have been perfected by decades spent in some clubhouse. Most of the terms went over my head or were describing stuff that was so obvious as not to have warranted comment.
The other thing that has changed is obviously, size.
Rugby has got bigger.
At a school reunion recently, I spoke to one of the priests who trained us years ago and he told me there’d be no place for teenagers like me on a school cup team these days. I was simply too light, too skinny and too weak.
Another thing that has changed is the money in the sport. As Ireland bids for the Rugby World Cup (RWC) in 2023, it is worth considering the numbers for the World Cup in England next year. Here are some findings in a recent report:
• The tournament will generate up to £2.2bn;
• Up to £982m will be added to GDP of the UK, with economic benefits spread across the 11 host cities;
• An estimated 41,000 jobs will be created. This includes 16,000 employees directly linked to the tournament and 12,000 along the supply chain;
• A total of £85m will be invested in infrastructure with long-term benefits lasting long after the tournament;
• Between 422,000 and 466,000 visitors are expected for RWC 2015, more than any previous Rugby World Cup, with an average spend (for their total visit) of between £59 and £3,546 depending upon their origin and profile. It is estimated that visitors will inject up to £869m of revenue into the UK economy.
Looking at the Six Nations championship, the sport generates significant revenues for each of the participating countries.
In 2013, the total revenue generated by the English RFU was a staggering £153.5m. In the same year, the Welsh Rugby Union took in £61m in revenue. The figures for unions in South Africa, Australia and Ireland were close to £42m, £55.7m and £54m respectively.
In terms of club rugby, the French are by far the richest. Toulouse tops the list of Europe’s 15 biggest rugby union clubs based on revenue. During the 2009/2010 season, Toulouse generated £27.4m (€33.5m) in revenue, followed by Clermont Auvergne at £19.5m (€23.8m) and Leicester Tigers at £18.5m (€22.6m). In total, French (11) and English clubs (four) dominate the top 15 positions by revenue.
Professional players get well paid for their enormous effort. In time, more and more players will be able to turn pro and, given what they subject their bodies to every week, these guys should be well paid.
Today, as father to a boy who, like his Dad, is a small teenager and is plying his trade up and down the wing, I worry about what is expected of these small kids in terms of tackling big lads. Desperately, I am trying to teach him the elegant and spectacular tap tackle
I was known in school as the only back who’d come off the pitch as clean as I went on. I don’t think that’s an option today!
But looking forward, rugby is a growing sport. It is wonderful to see it move away from the leafy suburbs and the largely fee-paying schools of bourgeois Ireland. As the game grows, the business and economics of rugby will change dramatically. As Ireland bids for the RWC, we should double our efforts to net this international tournament. Everyone will win.
David, Isn’t Sport just a microcosm of Society ? By that the Rich get richer and grass roots struggle on by. I’ve seen this with GAA, whilst this week Osborne announces 50million Govt funding in UK for Soccer — for an elite academy to support the England football team. — 50 million when food banks are growing a lot faster than the economy. 50 million to elite sport when pitches for sunday league games are covered in glass, or goalposts are broken, or ref never turns up. 50 Million, because he was convinced it was a good idea after viewing… Read more »
Sub… where us it?…
Having had the misfortune of being educated in a rugby secondary school [Cresent College comp Limerick],around the time our current minister for finance was a English and Geography teacher there and being a large youngster,I was forced,bullied threatned and cajoled onto a pitch and team to play this “sport”.To this point that today I hate the game with a passion and consider it a major Minus point in anyone I employ or if they start a conversation with “So did you,do ya play rugby?” What really put me off this whole sport and scam was when we got to leaving… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more with you Irish PI! And that’s what’s presently wrong with this country of ours. I did play various sports at the Grammar School I attended in the UK with Rugby Union being one of them, but I wasn’t what you could really call being good enough to represent the school in any of the various sports I played though. I was just your average Joe who played these sports just for the fun of it. I was just an average student on the academic side of things as well. What I’m trying to say is that I’m… Read more »
I, too, played it in my London grammar school and I still dislike the sport. I never learned the rules properly. The last time it annoyed me was when I was watching a Premier League game in a local pub with my son. All the other sets in the place were showing Munster but we had this one to ourselves. Then this hyperactive plonker comes along and tries to get them to change that over too. I really enjoyed one match a year or two ago (there was no other sport on at the time and that’s all I watch)… Read more »
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For Ireland, in terms of commerce, to win an event like this is hugely beneficial. However – it will have side effects. More young lads will play rugby. And that is a disaster. Because more players, means more injuries (at all levels of seriousness). I played some sports when I was a kid, but fortunately, I never took them seriously beyond the age of 12. 12 is the cut-off point. After 12 the testosterone kicks in, and that means more aggression, and more injuries. The best sport ? Chess. I wish I had learned chess when I was 8 instead… Read more »
This is a tough one David. Bring on the revenue to the Country and of course I’ll endorse it. My son loves rugby and plays it. I haven’t a clue I’m bookish and sport skips a generation in my family. I’m really at a loss on this one. We’re unpaid taxi drivers taking him on excursions to boyne or navan or ratoath or dundalk or skerries and various other venues as true blue dubs following the boggers circuit. Your comments echo some of my colleagues comments. Begod Kilkenny are a world class team. Laois are in a league of their… Read more »
I played rugby as a kid – as a 13 year-old centre I got plenty of ball, but as we all got bigger, the pitch got boggier and the forwards used to dominate, and I ended up hating it and took up golf! My real reason for disliking rugby though was the way the best players would be held up by all the teachers as great representatives of the school, even though they were often thick as two planks, bullies or both. But looking back I can see that now they are no longer training future war commanders and cannon… Read more »
I enjoyed reading the article . I must say that only that David was in Thomond Park he may not have written it . I believe he tasted that Rugby religious fever ingrained mindset so prevalent in the city of Limerick and embraced the passion that engulfed and blinded and morphed him into the steed of an African animal . All the World of Rugby arrived in one spot and that fulcrum of a fountain of sweat had to be showered on the readers of his column .Now we are all stained with the mystery of what happens next week… Read more »
Thomond park is in Ballynanty (aka Balla). Football (aka soccer) is by far the most dominant sport played by kids in this old working class Limerick neighbourhood. More schoolboys play football than rugby in Limerick. More adults play football than rugby in Limerick. My old school (1/2 mile away from Thomond Park) had a open mind attitude to sport codes. The school enjoyed huge success both locally and nationally in football (soccer) in the 80s, when it was top dog over rugby and hurling. Since then, the school produced better rugby teams and players (including Paul O’Connell) and better hurling… Read more »
Although David is clearly on the receiving end of ever more frantic PR from the UK, sport is wealth creating as an industry, but only very slightly. It encourages tourism, but that is the direction of a developing country. The increasing money in sport might just as easily be an indicator of the huge sloshing about of the hundreds of billions of new currency that governments and central banks have injected into their countries. The UK is putting in over £100n a year (the gap between revenue and expenditure), which is equivalent to about 15% of the UK government’s expenditure.… Read more »
This is often quoted. “Football is a gentleman’s game played by ruffians, and rugby is a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen.” I played soccer until 14 years old but on moving to Devon was reduced to Rugby. Captain of two school soccer teams reduced to an average rugger performer!! Playing rugby I met many a ruffian on the pitch from the opposing side that gainsaid the above. Fists, elbows and boots were all surreptitiously used and I suffered from it. I marked my adversaries well and as I developed physique those who had done me wrong were repaid tenfold. Players… Read more »
Developing Brains More Important Than Brawn
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/premiership/11291703/Andy-Goode-and-Nick-Easter-Young-players-are-too-much-brawn-not-enough-brain.html
After conditioning it is always the smart one wins the match. The same for all things including the boxing!!
Hi David, I need to make a post and will employ some imagination to keep it on topic. My post is not about gold though it is mentioned. In my view the great collapse has started. Buffet said if all the gold mined were melted into one cube that cube would fit on a rugby pitch only needing the distance from the goal line to the 22 to park it. As discussed before classical economists like yourself see deflation. Non economists like myself see inflation. It seems we are both right; “Biflation (sometimes mixflation) is a state of the economy… Read more »
I COULD NOT REFRAIN FROM POSTING THIS
Let them eat Gold
http://www.thelocal.es/20141212/spains-gold-dust-bread-worlds-most-pricey
I was contemplating how much the sports activity adds to taxable revenue and GDP. Yesterday I visited a group of volunteers building a garage sized storage shed. They had a prefab package of panabode style lumber delivered Pouring their own concrete base and assembling themselves they spent 4000 pounds. Total worth of the project finished has to be 10,000 pounds. so these people working together created 6000 pounds of wealth that is not registered on the GDP but nevertheless exists. Likewise I built or rebuilt a smallholdings infrastructure last year which also one could say was volunteer ans unpaid. Also… Read more »
It’s an indictment of the modern world that people pay to watch other people having fun… What’s next will people pay to watch other people drink, eat?