I know England are in the final.and obviously there is a feel good factor but putting that to one side I have really enjoyed the rugby world cup in Japan. Been nice to watch on free to air television and a breath of fresh air away from the primadona cheating footballers who chelp back at officials. And nice to see a team.winning on a Saturday.
ive watched rugby league as a season ticket holder at castleford for several years now and in doing so have lost virtually all interest in football, rugby is a world away from football, very little cheating,no diving around and rolling abart like cnuts,no players thinking they are god, no squads getting ripped apart mid season,spectators mixing amongst each other, being able to stand with a pint in your hand, nobody wanting to kick sumbodys head in etc etc some folk will never take to rugby but for me it really has been a breath of fresh air,both me and our lass love it and the rules of rugby league ensure end to end action and as a spectator if you turn your back for just a few seconds you've missed summat,i honestly cant say the same about football
I was lucky enough to spend 7 weeks working with the medical teams at the Rugby World Cup in 2015. The atmosphere at all the grounds, even among 12,000 at Exeter, is just wonderful, on and off the pitch. A night in Cardiff with the Welsh, Irish and Canadian supporters was memorable, as was a Saturday in Newcastle with the Scots and South African fans. Take it or leave it as your sport, but football has a lot to learn from it in terms of honesty, respect, self discipline, treatment of spectators and each other, etc etc. Given the choice of going to football World Cup, or a Rugby equivalent, the latter would win hands down for me.
What always impresses me with rugby is the amount of respect that players have for the referees. No surrounding them trying to coerce a decision in their favour, referring to them as sir when being spoken to, no answering back. Footballers could learn a lot from that alone.
I completely agree Jack. As I said yesterday I'm only a casual watcher of Rugby Union and I haven't watched every game of this World Cup but I have thoroughly enjoyed the games I have watched. I'm really looking forwards to the final next week.
There’s also the factor that in general Rugby referees have a higher degree of competence at the elite level
My casual observations lead me to conclude that the top level refs in Rugby Union are very competent and not biased towards big players / teams. I genuinely believe that this helps with the level of respect that they get from the players / managers and supporters.
Refs don't get it right all the time and never did, but players recognised that its a difficult game to referee...there are probably more offences possible in a ruck than in the whole of the FIfa's rulebook. The other thing of course is the discipline...chelp and the penalty will be 10 yards closer to goal ...do it again and another 10....try it again and the chances are you'll be off....abuse a ref and you're not likely to be playing again for a long time. The main factor though for me is that every referee I've ever come across is a former player which doesn't seem to be the case in football.
While there is so much money in the game and cheating is the norm, it will never happen. Besides which chipping at the ref and surrounding him when he makes a decision against your team seems to work, so there’s no incentive to stop.
It'd be interesting to see how the primadonna football players behaved if there was NO tv coverage. They are so up their own arses, can do no wrong, never to blame, all rights and no responsibilities. Take away cameras and they have no-one to perform for or show off in front of.
I have no care for rugby at all, I've just never been able to get into it. However, I felt am overwhelming amount of pride when I saw the result v the all blacks. Well done, England! Now go and finish the job.
