The official not really bothered about the Rugby World Cup Thread

[happypig]

I watched England v Fiji. I wanted to get excited but whenever I started to, there was a delay while the third umpire reviewed the on-field judge's decision.
I'll probably tune in to England's other matches but I'm just not interested in Japan v South Africa.
Contrast that to the football world cup when I will watch as many games as I possibly can and find Tuvalu v Pitcairn Islands as exciting as Italy v Spain.
For me, Football is exciting, thrilling and passionate whereas Rugby doesn't have the same spark.

 

[Easy 10]

I watched out of a vague sense of duty, hoping I'd get into it.

But its all such a MESS. People actually cheer, non-ironically, when a monobrow 19 stone gorilla boots the ball into touch. And for a rough-and-tumble sport, literally EVERYTHING is a foul, except nobody ever really knows what for. Its random. And its a bloody PENALTY just for being offside, whatever offside is because I didn't see anyone get behind the defence, you're not allowed to pass the ball forward, and there's no linesman to make the call anyway. Theres summink about getting in front of the ball that gets called offside, but its not proper offside, nobody can really see it. Its just when the ref fancies giving another penalty to someone.

And the scrum. Seriously, whats the point of that ? They all make a giant crab and shove each other around a bit, then the ball gets lobbed in, 2 seconds later the whistle goes and someone gets another penalty. Then Englands kicker steps up and looks for all the world like some sort of creepy weird sex offender with a mental tick, twitching his head all over the shop like he's about to stab your sister before taking his run-up. Even the WHISTLE sounds all wrong. And if there's a try (what a shit name for a score..."try"), you invariably have to hang around for 10 minutes while they unpile all the bodies and watch about 14 TV replays to see if the egg rolled over the line.

There's really nothing aesthetically pleasing in this sport at all. Its a chaotic mess which is more often than not largely decided by an endless series of baffling penalties.

 

[nwgull]

All decent sport is on pay TV these days - football, cricket and boxing are sports that people will pay to watch. It leaves athletics, rugby and other minority sports. However of all minority sports, rugby is at least more interesting than the 400 metres or the hop skip and jump. But rugby has to be on free TV or the "world cup" wouldnt be watched be anyone.

It's on terrestrial TV as it has to be - the same as the football world cup. The 6-Nations tournament is also one of the 'crown jewels' sporting events that have to be on TV. Apart from those games, all pro rugby is on Sky Sports: England test matches, Lions tours, European Cup matches and domestic Premiership rugby.

 

[perseus]

I really want to 'get into' but I can't hide from my true feelings which is, I just don't really care like I do football. I blame my school, we were obsessed with football and rugby hardly figured....but what a sport to get obsessed about eh?!!

How many ****ing goalkeepers on the pitch at one time?

 

[Bry Nylon]

I agree with all of that. I have tried in the past, honestly I have; but for all those reasons its just impossible to not find yourself mentally wandering off somewhere else after about nine minutes. As a spectacle its up there with watching traffic.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

As soon as one of the oversized players has the miss shaped"ball" , all the others pull him to the ground and fall over him - and play stops . Contrast that to the fast moving skillful game of football and you can see why we throng to our sport.

Rugby is a big yawn to me

 

[W.C.]

probably a bit harsh, normally I don't give a shit about that bird sliding down the ice on a tea tray,but I was over the moon for her when she won gold

I like to see England or Great Britain win at anything personally

I had to think about that a little bit before I realised you were talking about a sport. The first images it conjured up were much more pleasing.

Anyway, yes, I know what you mean. I often get caught up in sports I normally couldn't give two figs about (usually Olympic stuff) and want England or GB to do well.

Dunno what it is with Rugby and Cricket though. They really turn me off and I feel no connection with them at all to be completely honest.

 

[W.C.]

I watched out of a vague sense of duty, hoping I'd get into it.

But its all such a MESS. People actually cheer, non-ironically, when a monobrow 19 stone gorilla boots the ball into touch. And for a rough-and-tumble sport, literally EVERYTHING is a foul, except nobody ever really knows what for. Its random. And its a bloody PENALTY just for being offside, whatever offside is because I didn't see anyone get behind the defence, you're not allowed to pass the ball forward, and there's no linesman to make the call anyway. Theres summink about getting in front of the ball that gets called offside, but its not proper offside, nobody can really see it. Its just when the ref fancies giving another penalty to someone.

And the scrum. Seriously, whats the point of that ? They all make a giant crab and shove each other around a bit, then the ball gets lobbed in, 2 seconds later the whistle goes and someone gets another penalty. Then Englands kicker steps up and looks for all the world like some sort of creepy weird sex offender with a mental tick, twitching his head all over the shop like he's about to stab your sister before taking his run-up. Even the WHISTLE sounds all wrong. And if there's a try (what a shit name for a score..."try"), you invariably have to hang around for 10 minutes while they unpile all the bodies and watch about 14 TV replays to see if the egg rolled over the line.

There's really nothing aesthetically pleasing in this sport at all. Its a chaotic mess which is more often than not largely decided by an endless series of baffling penalties.

Superb and I may just quote this verbatim whenever being harangued by a Rugby type.

 

[W.C.]

Is that really true though ? All the guys I play rugby with are football fans too.
I've rarely heard people talk about football in a condescending way ? We rip the piss out of some of the feigning injury and diving around like they've been shot, but patronising........no.

Have you never met anyone from the Southern Hemisphere?

 

[W.C.]

It's called tackling

I know. I was trying to do a funny

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Having spent many, many Sunday mornings on the touchline watching junior rugby it seems to me that rugby has lost its way a little. It is a players game. When it is a running game it is a fine, exciting spectacle. When the forwards get involved only the players really know what is going on. If you have played the game it appears you have more of an insight but Ben Kay trying to explain what was going on in the scrum is baffling to the caual spectator, and baffling to me who has never played but has watched a lot of games. And in the professional game the size of the players - I mean 6'4" and 20st - means that "hits" take over from tackles and there is less space and opportunity for a running game.

The video technology has benefits, but man alive, does it break up the play. I saw England at Twickenham against Samia was it, this season and they looked back at about three different reasons not to award a try. Madness.

Add to this a set of laws that changes without seeming to get clearer and you have what Easy correctly described as a mess.

But mess as a spectator sport. It looks like a great game to play at amateur level (although players do look to be bulking up even there) and a really great game at junior level. I would recommend any parent to take his son or daughter to mini rugby.

It is also great rugby has a World Cup and wise for it to be on terrestrial tv but it will struggle as it stands to pick up a mass audience. There will be really exciting games I am sure, and moments of great drama, but It really is a players game.

 

[Icy Gull]

I know. I was trying to do a funny

I did wonder dear after I posted if I'd been whooshed

 

[BN9 BHA]

I watched out of a vague sense of duty, hoping I'd get into it.

But its all such a MESS. People actually cheer, non-ironically, when a monobrow 19 stone gorilla boots the ball into touch. And for a rough-and-tumble sport, literally EVERYTHING is a foul, except nobody ever really knows what for. Its random. And its a bloody PENALTY just for being offside, whatever offside is because I didn't see anyone get behind the defence, you're not allowed to pass the ball forward, and there's no linesman to make the call anyway. Theres summink about getting in front of the ball that gets called offside, but its not proper offside, nobody can really see it. Its just when the ref fancies giving another penalty to someone.

And the scrum. Seriously, whats the point of that ? They all make a giant crab and shove each other around a bit, then the ball gets lobbed in, 2 seconds later the whistle goes and someone gets another penalty. Then Englands kicker steps up and looks for all the world like some sort of creepy weird sex offender with a mental tick, twitching his head all over the shop like he's about to stab your sister before taking his run-up. Even the WHISTLE sounds all wrong. And if there's a try (what a shit name for a score..."try"), you invariably have to hang around for 10 minutes while they unpile all the bodies and watch about 14 TV replays to see if the egg rolled over the line.

There's really nothing aesthetically pleasing in this sport at all. Its a chaotic mess which is more often than not largely decided by an endless series of baffling penalties.

Superb, nice to see someone being so honest and not jumping on the rugby bandwagon

 

[s5.bha]

As a youngster my school Longhill was a rugby school........the PE teacher was rugby mad and if you didn't play or like rugby then he didn't give a shit about you and in some cases could be a bit of a bully.

And because of this one c**t of a man I hate the minority sport that is rugby !

 

[atomised]

What I learnt watching last night was the nightmare that video replays would bring to football

 

[heathgate]

Having spent many, many Sunday mornings on the touchline watching junior rugby it seems to me that rugby has lost its way a little. It is a players game. When it is a running game it is a fine, exciting spectacle. When the forwards get involved only the players really know what is going on. If you have played the game it appears you have more of an insight but Ben Kay trying to explain what was going on in the scrum is baffling to the caual spectator, and baffling to me who has never played but has watched a lot of games. And in the professional game the size of the players - I mean 6'4" and 20st - means that "hits" take over from tackles and there is less space and opportunity for a running game.

The video technology has benefits, but man alive, does it break up the play. I saw England at Twickenham against Samia was it, this season and they looked back at about three different reasons not to award a try. Madness.

Add to this a set of laws that changes without seeming to get clearer and you have what Easy correctly described as a mess.

But mess as a spectator sport. It looks like a great game to play at amateur level (although players do look to be bulking up even there) and a really great game at junior level. I would recommend any parent to take his son or daughter to mini rugby.

It is also great rugby has a World Cup and wise for it to be on terrestrial tv but it will struggle as it stands to pick up a mass audience. There will be really exciting games I am sure, and moments of great drama, but It really is a players game.

It's a great thinking mans sport, perhaps this is why it doesn't manage to penetrate the psyche of the average football fan....... 《lights blue touch paper and retires to a safe distance》

 

[Pogue Mahone]

EVERY big tournament, even the six nations, I sit down to watch the first match, promising myself that I'll enjoy it this time. I understand the rules, I know what's going on. I KNOW that I have enjoyed at least one game of rugby in the past.

I generally last less than ten minutes before something else takes my interest.

Last night was no exception (Netflix - Sons of Anarchy as it happens).

I shan't be watching. It bores me.

What I find really irritating, though, is the fever-pitch excitement of so many of the clearly ex-public-school media who are virtually wetting themselves with excitement. Mike Bushell on BBC Breakfast, the little squirt, is enough to put anyone off the game - if he likes it, it must be shit. BBC Breakfast as a whole is going to be pretty much unwatchable for the next 6 (SIX!) weeks.

The superiority complex, too, that annoys me. "Football is a gentleman's game, played and watched by thugs; rugby is a thug's game, played and watched by gentleman." Well, this thug says sod that. Anyone who has ever had to suffer a rugby team, pissed up and so 'fraternal' will know that the 'gentleman' thing is bollocks.

What amazes me is that it takes the start of one of these big tournaments to remind me of my distaste for the game.

 

[Capricorn]

Today's update as brought to you from 'The official not really bothered about the Rugby World Cup' Thread: Presumably some rugby matches happened. Maybe. Not 100% on this fact. Hopefully some people enjoyed them if they did happen. Don't know the scores. That is, if matches were played - which I cannot stress enough - they may not have been as I'm not really bothered about the Rugby World Cup. Back to you in the studio.

 

[heathgate]

.....I hate the minority sport that is rugby !

A sizeable 'minority' with around 2m registered players and more than 2000 clubs.

 

[heathgate]

EVERY big tournament, even the six nations, I sit down to watch the first match, promising myself that I'll enjoy it this time. I understand the rules, I know what's going on. I KNOW that I have enjoyed at least one game of rugby in the past.

I generally last less than ten minutes before something else takes my interest.

Last night was no exception (Netflix - Sons of Anarchy as it happens).

I shan't be watching. It bores me.

What I find really irritating, though, is the fever-pitch excitement of so many of the clearly ex-public-school media who are virtually wetting themselves with excitement. Mike Bushell on BBC Breakfast, the little squirt, is enough to put anyone off the game - if he likes it, it must be shit. BBC Breakfast as a whole is going to be pretty much unwatchable for the next 6 (SIX!) weeks.

The superiority complex, too, that annoys me. "Football is a gentleman's game, played and watched by thugs; rugby is a thug's game, played and watched by gentleman." Well, this thug says sod that. Anyone who has ever had to suffer a rugby team, pissed up and so 'fraternal' will know that the 'gentleman' thing is bollocks.

What amazes me is that it takes the start of one of these big tournaments to remind me of my distaste for the game.

Note: short attention span + inverse snobbery.