A national debate has openned up about whether football or rugby should be our national game, at least this is how it was posed on 5 Live the other day.
Has the success of the England Rugby team in reaching the semi-finals, having won the world cup last time around placed rugby at the centre of our national sporting conciousness and replaced football as our national game?
People point out that footballers are over-paid and disrespect their referees whereas Rugby players are good value for money and at least have respect for the rules and those officiating the game.
I often hear people say that Rugby is a man's game whereas football is played by boys.
Personally, I can sit and watch a football match either in a stadium or live on TV and enjoy it. I have watched local league football and enjoyed it. I did play a bit of football when I was younger and enjoy talking about the game, reading about the game as well as watching it.
While it is good to see the England rugby team doing well I can't say that I really enjoy watching rugby with all its stop-starts and over complicated rules.
What does everyone else think?
Personally I prefer rugby.... although it is better (I feel) to see it live than on TV. I may get jumped on for this, but I also feel there's more skill involved : ducks head:
I do think that footballers are overpaid, but then there is the view that we attract what we feel we're worth. Not sure if that counts where football is concerned though LOL
I also prefer rugby players legs 😀
hi boys :p,
well, i watched both the england games at the weekend and indeed the sunday rugby (oooh sorry my virus detector just picked up a dodgy email!).
anyway, i like both but probably have a keener interest in footie, maybe cos its more accessable? (and lets not forget the footie thread and fantasy about it all (easy... i meant fantasy teams!... ooeeerrr is that worse?)
:cool:).
i remember getting interested in rugby, oooh way back when damn, whats his name, oh i know, bill beaumont captained us to a great victory (eeeks circa 80's something) (and did ya know its 20 years today of the great storm!!?)...
anyways, in more recent times, i have paid more attention to the rules of rugby but still find them a little hard, well actually not to understand, but maybe to see when it happens? especially when theres this huge pulsating mass of muscle and you're supposed to spot something amiss?? it just aint happening for me, fellas! 😉
but its great we are in the final... although we were trounced already by RSA erm, 29 -0? :rolleyes: hmmm, i may have that wrong :p.
as for footie... WHY OH WHY is the game not on TV tomorrow??? and at 4? sheesh, that aint even sundowner hour for the pub!!
was that the answer you wanted, mark? 😮 😮
as for footie... WHY OH WHY is the game not on TV tomorrow???
Roger will be happy - the Scotland match is on live on BBC2.
But not to show England v Russia, the crunch match on the dreaded artificial turf?
BTW I'm not sorry that Lamps got booed. My boy Owen and Crouchy both got booed and lived with it....if Fat Frank is such a sensitive soul, he'd better go back indoors and count his millions. I hear he's being marketed a la DB; which begs the question, just who does he think he is? Cos a super footballer he just ain't. IMVHO.
Love
Sunanda xxx
(Is it a 4pm ko tomorrow? My local pub might be bearable at that hour.)
Edited to apologise: I thought this was the footie thread! Doh!
A national debate has openned up about whether football or rugby should be our national game, at least this is how it was posed on 5 Live the other day.
Off topic - Cricket for me.
I hear he's being marketed a la DB; which begs the question, just who does he think he is? Cos a super footballer he just ain't. IMVHO.
I'm with you on that one Sunanda, him Ferdinand and Robinson, I could replace all three right now with better English players for their positions and I wouldn't even need more than about 12 seconds to think about it.
Back on Topic (soz Dunk):o
I was terrible at playing footie however I played rugby union well enough to play even at county level - on account of my speed and low centre of gravity (I think that translates as - 'could change direction/s at full tilt') but I gotta admit I prefer to watch Footie, and I also think our national game should certainly remain footie mainly because it's roots far outstreach rugby in terms of both historical age and cultural spread.
As for all the stuff about rugby is more respectful (I know you were careful how you worded it - so I figure you must be fully aware of my point) but the voilence that goes on 'on pitch' is kinda shocking, I remember us all sharpening our metal studs on the concrete before we stepped on the pitch - and that's before the game even kick's off 😉
Gosh, I feel I might be butting in here with the football culture club etc that is here, though know this is a separate thread. As an Irish girl married to Englishman, plus had an English dad, English football has nearly been part of my life so I would associate England with Football (or soccer). You probably know that football here in Ireland means Gaelic football! I must admit that I have never really watched much rugby apart from the poor Ireland matches a few weeks ago. Does seem a bit rough and I can't seem to follow the rules. Give me the FIFA 08 on PS2 anyday, can beat hubbie hands down!! (once I know what direction I am aiming for! lol)
Rachel 🙂
Football or Rugby? mm, let's think.......
Footballers get paid huge amounts of money,they get a kick in the shin and get carried off crying.
Rugby players get a kick in the shin - and they play twice as hard!
But as it goes, the best men in sport are the one's on motorbikes. 🙂 And yes, they are as fit!
Football or Rugby? mm, let's think.......
Footballers get paid huge amounts of money,they get a kick in the shin and get carried off crying.
😉 bit of a standard comment that has no real truth really
ooouch!!! i dunno if i wanted to see that picture!
maybe its because we dont get to see rugby played at club level so much, but the behaviour towards the officials on matches we do see, always appears better and more "respectful". perhaps thats because theres video back up? but i take your point and i have seen boots going in on scrummages and tackles...
i heard motty saying at the w/e to lawro, he isnt looking forward to the day that video replays come in for football... he accepts that an over the goal line call will be useful, but offside will be difficult to evaluate... dammit, i agree with him too!! but perhaps bad tackles (when play is interupted anyway) would be a good step forward?
😉 bit of a standard comment that has no real truth really
No truth - get away. How many times do they limp around a bit and then suddenly decide that they're suddenly okay!
Hate to think what they're like when they've got 'man flu'!!
🙂 :p
Well yep! there is that I suppose...
As I've got man flu at the mo, sniffle...sniffle...<rog crawls back into bad feeling sorry for himself> 😮
Personally, I'm a massive rugby fan, and don't have much time for football; I'll paste this in from a rugby chat-room I belong to:
Football is a simple game, 22 men chase a round ball around a pitch for eighty minutes and in the end the Germans win.
Rugby is a more complex game in which 30 men chase an oval ball around the pitch for eighty minutes. In the end the New Zealanders stuff all-comers then choke, the Welsh lose to a PI team, the French pull off a miracle to win their toughest game then blow up in their next fixture, and the English end up in the final with everyone scratching their heads wondering how on earth that happened.
Now which is the more compelling sport?
I'll also quote from Martin Johnson (RWC03 winning captian) "in football, 22 men spend 90 minutes pretending to be injured, in rugby 30 men spent 80 minutes pretending not to be".
Personally I'd rather football remained the national sport. The appauling press coverage of rugby during world cups (aka the football press trying to cover a different sport) and the offensive one-eyed jingoistic reporting there in, can stay out of rugby for as long as possible, as far as I'm concerned.
(Apologies if that comes across as arrogant etc, it's not a dig at football fans or players, but the press; I simply don't know how representative of real attitudes the football press actually is)
Somebody told me there was some sort of rugby match on on Saturday... is this true?
Nick,
you're absolutly right, there was a rugby match on Saturday. My Son and I both watched it on TV and were very disappointed that England lost.
The only thing is that neither of us really have a clue as to why they lost or what was going on during much of the game. Still, we persevered and watched it from beginning to end.
Come 10:30 MOTD started and we were back on familliar territory. For weeks I have heared nothing but anecdotes celebrating the superiority of rugby fans over football fans so it was refreshing that MOTD showed the Merseyside derby with groups of Liverpool and Everton fans sitting and talking together.
My own favourite team,The Arsenal were up against an experienced and tricky Bolton defense ( consisting of Campo, Nolan and 9 others) and took until the later stages of the game to break them down and score.
My local team, good old Swindon Town imposed Tranmere's first away defeat of the season to win 1-0 and maintain their promotion challenge from League 1 to the Championship.
I grew up with football, played it in the street or down the park with my mates. Was never particularly good at it but enjoyed it nevertheless. The only time I ever played rugby was when we had to in games lessons during my later years at school.
I didn't take to the game. I found the complexity of the rules somewhat contrived and all the stop starts of line-outs, rucks and scrums frustrating. Being a more complex game doesn't necessarily make it better or more enjoyable or compelling.
Dunkirk