Rugger
One of the (very few) positive things about Saturday calls is that they mean I get to escape The Rugby. Working on a Saturday is a legitimate way to avoid spending the day sprawled on the couch (or fighting for table space in a pub) with The Adman, watching sweaty men jumping all over each other.
Picture Credits
Rugby Players
Originally uploaded by bluehawaiian
It is rather ironic then, that as winter sets in, rugby has become my chief source of Saturday work. There are apparently forty or so club rugby teams in The Crater and surrounds (not counting the prisons and schools), and so on any given Saturday there are in excess of six hundred grown men doing their darndest to inflict bodily harm on each other, whilst pretending that all they really want to do is get a little oblong ball over some arbitrary white line.
And inflict bodily harm they do. Last week I saw, in the space of two hours: two dislocated shoulders, a dislocated (and fractured) ankle, a fractured clavicle, a fractured ankle, plus multiple soft-tissue injuries. It's ok: reducing dislocations is very satisfying (the ankle is my personal favourite), and I'm a pop pro by now, but somewhat more annoying are the hangers-on. Do you really need your entire team to look on while I remove your head blocks? And is it really necessary for your girlfriend, mother and sister to stand stroking your head and murmuring 'It's nearly over, skaapie' while I apply your below-knee cast?
I'm all for sport - keeps them off tik and the heart healthy, eh? - but does it really have to involve quite so much contact? Can't there be more running, and less rolling about in a heap on the grass? Why do players often feel the irrepressible urge to punch each other? And why, after all of this, do these supposedly fine examples of masculinity turn into such cry-babies? Rugby and its allure has always been a great mystery to me, and I can't say that getting up close and personal withthe players has done anything to change this.
And inflict bodily harm they do. Last week I saw, in the space of two hours: two dislocated shoulders, a dislocated (and fractured) ankle, a fractured clavicle, a fractured ankle, plus multiple soft-tissue injuries. It's ok: reducing dislocations is very satisfying (the ankle is my personal favourite), and I'm a pop pro by now, but somewhat more annoying are the hangers-on. Do you really need your entire team to look on while I remove your head blocks? And is it really necessary for your girlfriend, mother and sister to stand stroking your head and murmuring 'It's nearly over, skaapie' while I apply your below-knee cast?
I'm all for sport - keeps them off tik and the heart healthy, eh? - but does it really have to involve quite so much contact? Can't there be more running, and less rolling about in a heap on the grass? Why do players often feel the irrepressible urge to punch each other? And why, after all of this, do these supposedly fine examples of masculinity turn into such cry-babies? Rugby and its allure has always been a great mystery to me, and I can't say that getting up close and personal withthe players has done anything to change this.
Picture Credits
Rugby Players
Originally uploaded by bluehawaiian
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4 comments:
May 18, 2009
You have pretty much captured my sentiments on the sport exactly. Can't believe I used to do noodhulp for these guys in high school. Then again, our team sucked, as I recall.
May 19, 2009
i love rugby but i have the good sense not to play it anymore. also the injuries are usually orthopaedic so they don't bother me (although i once operated a small bowel perforation aquired during a game)
May 21, 2009
Skaapie? That's priceless!
May 29, 2009
I love rugby, but I was lousy at it. Skill at the game wasn't that important. I'm very aggressive. It gave me a controlled space to channel that. After my weekly rugby game, I found it a lot easier to deal appropriately with stressful situations. My job at that time consisted mostly of stressful situations. As such, rugby was very valuable to me. I suspect that it serves that purpose for a lot of people. Most young men want to test and prove themselves. The ways that they find to do that are going to involve physical risk, aggression, and status seeking. Rugby offers a controlled, socially acceptable outlet for that. Would you rather they didn't have - really?
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