Rugby
I don't like rugby. This is mostly because I don't tend to like the people who support it. They have upper middle class aspirations, and this is reflected in their choice of sport; they couldn't possibly be seen supporting something as proletarian as football, with its rather unsavoury reputation for crowd trouble and bovril and players that didn't go to a decent public school. Its somewhere that your Henrys and Charleses can take their Henriettas and Charlottes without fear of them being exposed to the lower classes at play, without any chance of them being jostled by someone who isn't listed in Debretts. Someone once told me that England is the only rugby-playing country where its not the game of the common man and is instead the preserve of the boarding school and the upper classes; this is probably why everything about the game raises my hackles.
The other reason I don't like it is that I don't understand it. I'm not a stupid person (IMO, obviously), and if I watch a sport I can generally pick up the basics quite quickly. However, rugby eludes me. I know that there's something in there about not throwing forward, but other than that, I'm stumped.
On Saturday night, Doug watched the France v England semi final, and, in the spirit of marital harmony, I (sort of) watched it with him. I still have no idea how its played, and that actually made it very tense; especially when you have no idea what action will lead to points being awarded, which part of the field they need to be in for that to happen or, indeed, how many points are given for doing something.
Anyway, well done the English team. I know enough to know that they weren't expected to get this far, especially on pre- and early tournament form, and that when they met their fellow finalists, South Africa, in the group stages they didn't score a single goal/point/try/whatever. Which probably means that they'll get properly thumped in the final, despite any amount of jingoistic hype in the media this week bigging up their chances. Which sounds suspiciously like football :-)
2 Comments:
This has nothing to do with football or rugby, although being a posh public-school bird I prefer rugby to watch, because it's muddier and dirtier and involves proper fighting with loss of body parts. I haven't got a clue what's going on, though. I grew up in Twickenham, where all the sensible pubs closed on rugby days, and having waded through the litter and the beer cans on the high street on many occasions, I have a fairly dim view of rugby supporters too.
So. Having established this was not about rugby/football, I shall stop talking about rugby football and thank you for the bloody amazing cardigans. You are a genius and a legend. (I have no idea what your email address is, so all who read your comments shall know what a genius and legend you are.) Thank you, a million times thank you - they're just the best thing anyone's given Esme, I've been turning them over in my hands going "How...?" and she looks adorable in them. I don't often use that word, but in this case it's true. You're amazing.
A x x
oooh, that's ok, no probs. I'm glad you like them. Feel free to pass them on once she's grown out of them :-)
Would you believe me if I said both of those thing were actually v easy to knit? Honest :-)
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