United Kingdom: Why rugby is the ideal fan sport

last updated 8 January 2015

Stephen Moss

The Guardian

Rugby may be the most “dull, plodding” game on earth, but the passion in the stands makes it “sport at its purest,” said Stephen Moss. The rules are arcane, and nobody who isn’t a devoted fan can figure out what all the penalties are for—but then, the beauty of a sport doesn’t lie in the rules or even the scores. Sports are “a tribal rite, not an aesthetic exercise, and no sport does tribalism better than rugby.” An England-Wales match, for example, is “a titanic clash of cultures, histories, and identities.” The anthems go on nearly the length of a half, as fans of both sides sing not only their respective national anthems but a few other popular songs as well, and the singing often continues during the game itself. This is a sport not of the brain, but of the heart, or the gut. The actual playing, of course, is utterly unwatchable, since the ball “disappears under a heap of bodies for long periods” and the scrums, in which several players interlock arms and bang heads together, “are endlessly set and reset as referees struggle to impose discipline.” Yet the stupefying nature of the action is the key to rugby’s greatness. Because “the game is so awful to watch,” the drama has to be created by the nations willing their representatives “on to victory.”