- in the Valleys -- Cymru 40 - Australia 6. Hymns and Arias ! Rugby jerseys do not have the players’ names on them because rugby always put the emphasis on the team rather than the individual12. Rugby adheres to an unwritten code surrounding sportsmanship, which includes not worshiping individual players1. (having said that I worship Rees-Zammit!)
I heard one lady who went to the game on Radio 4 this morning who was waxing lyrical about the singing in the first half and the second half. Not a word about the rugby. If you want singing, why not try a church or chapel?
(DR - strange message.) IMPORTANCE of a NATIONAL ANTHEM. I’m sure everyone’s been in a situation in their life where they’ve had to stand for a national anthem of their respective country. As a Welshman my national anthem is of great significance to me and you can rest assured that when the time comes this Saturday I’ll be standing in front of the television with my right hand over my heart singing at the top of my voice and I’m sure that most of the millennium stadium will be too. So why are the national anthems of the respective Countries of such significance? Why are they even sung before the game? If you read my previous article you would know that this tradition was actually started by the Welsh team of 1905 when they sung “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” in response to the New Zealand Haka. But are they of any benefit to the players? Well actually I can confirm that the answer is YES. , national anthems constitute a powerful tool to evoke nationalism and pride in individuals, according to the first empirical exploration on the effect of national anthems on social identity. Now this is where things get interesting. Did you know that England as a country has no national anthem? God Save the King is only their adopted anthem for sporting events, and is, in fact, the National anthem of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Even more interestingly God Save the King is also officially the national anthem of New Zealand.
And Scotland have a folk song written in the 60's. Ireland use a song written in the nineties especially for the 95 Rugby World Cup (Ireland's call) and only use the actual ROI national anthem , Amhrán na bhFiann, when playing in Dublin (when both get used). England really could do with coming up with something better than the UKNI dirge imo.
I simply refuse to sing that dirge that is passed off as England's anthem. Absolute garbage it is. Flower of Scotland is the top dog of the anthem world.
All opinions but personally speaking I think its miles behind the Welsh in terms of passion and just the actual tune. Sounds like what it is, a folk song.
Some qualities of a good National Anthem - Being uplifting and strongly identified with a group or individual. Having a great chorus that will stand being sung badly. !!!!! Using simple, tonally strong chord progressions in the chorus. Another impressive National Anthem is the 'unofficial' Irish one - 'Fields of Athenry.' - written in 1979 -based on the Irish famine of he 1840/50's.
Currently controversy over here on the singing of Zombie at the Rugby. Sinn Fein taking it as an attack directly on them. TBH my view is it is being sung cos its a great tune and Dolores was a genius lost too soon. But each to their own.
