Rugby - Who? Me, Sir? Offside?

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by Caligastia
I think we all need to vote for the next thread title, we only have 35 posts left!

I vote for Rugby - The Ball's Out!

My second choice is Havak's "Coming in from the side"

Rugby - The Ball's Out! is OK for me !

What about Rugby - On your feet! Wait! Wait!

[LDiCesare]

there's a part of the game in which absolutely no one really knows what's going on

When you play in the front row, there are many more parts of the game in which you have no idea what happened. Like when you rise from one scrum to another one and ponder which three quarter knocked on the ball.
About what is going on, here is a small excerpt from "The Bluffer's Guide To Rugby" (shown here for academic purposes, so it should be OK with copyrights):

(...)William Webb Ellis (...) invented Rugby Football. William caught the ball while playing football and ran at his opponents with the ball in his hands. Even today most rugby players haven't a clue about the laws of the game they are playing, either.

At certain levels, that remark also holds true of referees.

I still prefer "Rugby - Last feet!". I yet have to hear a scrum half taking the time to shout "The ball is out". "OUT!" would be more usual, or out left/ out right. Rugby - The Game with 1001 Laws would be nice too, although I may underestimate the number.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
When you play in the front row, there are many more parts of the game in which you have no idea what happened. Like when you rise from one scrum to another one and ponder which three quarter knocked on the ball.
About what is going on, here is a small excerpt from "The Bluffer's Guide To Rugby" (shown here for academic purposes, so it should be OK with copyrights):

At certain levels, that remark also holds true of referees.

Unfortunately, this is also true when you are in the stadium as a spectator. This is even more true when you are in front of your TV screen as you don't have any general view of what is going on, moreover the cameraman is too often focused on the ball and its bearer.

I still prefer "Rugby - Last feet!". I yet have to hear a scrum half taking the time to shout "The ball is out". "OUT!" would be more usual, or out left/ out right. Rugby - The Game with 1001 Laws would be nice too, although I may underestimate the number.

Rugby - Tales of the One Thousand and One Laws

Or,

Rugby - One game to rule them all (...) and in heaven bind them

[finbar]

Originally posted by Caligastia
I think we all need to vote for the next thread title, we only have 35 posts left!

I vote for Rugby - The Ball's Out!

I'd vote for it too. It's definitely arcane enough.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
Rugby - Tales of the One Thousand and One Laws

If the computer keyboard had the infinity symbol on it you'd be closer to the truth.

[finbar]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
I yet have to hear a scrum half taking the time to shout "The ball is out".

In the SH, anyway, you most often hear it from the ref.

[Bearcat]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
I yet have to hear a scrum half taking the time to shout "The ball is out". "OUT!" would be more usual, or out left/ out right.

We yelled that all the time in our games, but it was mostly the pack or one of the back line who could see the ball, not the scrumhalf. On that not though, try getting a scrumhalf to do anything useful

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Tamerlin

Rugby - One game to rule them all (...) and in heaven bind them

That gets my half a vote.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Bearcat
On that not though, try getting a scrumhalf to do anything useful

Spoken like a true flanker!

[finbar]

Originally posted by ravagon


That gets my half a vote.

Half? There you go flattering yourself again.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by finbar

Half? There you go flattering yourself again.

Oi! I'll have you know I made a decent winger back in high school ... well, at least when the ground was dry enough for me to keep my feet ... which, considering the conditions under which most NZ matches are played was about one game in ... ... erm, nevermind. Forget I said anything.

[Havak]

I forgot to add that Kafer is - or was - a mighty fine play organiser. He - as much as Steve Larkham - was responsible for calling the shots at the Brumbies.

He is on a dual contract with us – player and backs coach.

Did he have a rugby background? How's he doing in the 2s

At schoolboy level I understand. And sadly I don’t know – the extras play Monday nights and I generally have other things to do. I know a few lads who attend though so I’ll find out.

Rugby – The Balls out is kushdy by me.

Like when you rise from one scrum to another one and ponder which three quarter knocked on the ball.

Super stuff LdiCesare! The forwards lament we should call it?

At certain levels, that remark also holds true of referees.

Again excellent stuff – who could disagree?

The Webb Ellis story is, of course, and urban myth. Were you aware in the early days of the game it was as a popular with the British working classes as it was with our social elite? Webb Ellis was retrospectively singled out as the ‘creator’ of rugby some twenty years after the event as part of a concerted effort by the elite to reserve the game for the ‘right kind of people’. There is not tangible proof Webb Ellis had anything to do with it at all – his name was seemingly arbitrarily picked out by the then headmaster of Rugby school who was a gentleman who felt very strongly that ‘Oiks’ should not be allowed to play the game.

It worked spectacularly well and hamstrung our game until the 1990s!

Have I mentioned how much I hate the class system here?

This is even more true when you are in front of your TV screen..

Plus TV is a 2D medium. It’s very hard to tell any offsides on it for instance. Unless it’s an Australian team playing.

One game to rule them all…that’s almost sig material.

And as for all this positional rivalry I always thought that if you weren’t in the tight five engine room you didn’t really matter.

[finbar]

Originally posted by ravagon




Oi! I'll have you know I made a decent winger back in high school ... well, at least when the ground was dry enough for me to keep my feet ... which, considering the conditions under which most NZ matches are played was about one game in ... ... erm, nevermind. Forget I said anything.

You'd be hard pressed to find a damp ground in Perth. I'd suggest a comeback.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Havak
He is on a dual contract with us – player and backs coach.

Promote him to the England camp. They don't seem to have a backs coach.

It worked spectacularly well and hamstrung our game until the 1990s!

Yes, one of the great cons of all time. There was a splendid piece on the Ellis myth in that History of Rugby doco.

Have I mentioned how much I hate the class system here?

Yes, but feel free to vent your spleen at very great length. It will be a post with which I will find no fault!

And as for all this positional rivalry I always thought that if you weren’t in the tight five engine room you didn’t really matter.

Ah ... the lament of the front rower. Only you've used a four-syllable word in there, Havak, I suspect you're a tight-head imposter!

[Havak]

Promote him to the England camp. They don't seem to have a backs coach

I think Woodward handles this role himself now. I’m sure that explains quite a lot?

I think after RWC we may well go shopping for both key playing and coaching talent from yourselves and the Kiwis. Personally I will have a side bet with you that if we do very badly in RWC Woodward falls on his sword and Dean Richards and John Wells take the England helm – Rod will have a real chance of being backs coach then.

The double on that bet would be Martin then taking over at Tigers.

Yes, one of the great cons of all time. There was a splendid piece on the Ellis myth in that History of Rugby doco.

I’m sure I saw it last year. It nicely blew apart the constructed history didn’t it?

I’ve also got a book of Rugby’s strangest stories that amongst other things reveals that for their first few decades the Welsh rugby team consisted almost entirely of English middle class professional types studying or working in Wales. Something of a gem that I threw about in Cardiff a little last May.

Yes, but feel free to vent your spleen at very great length. It will be a post with which I will find no fault!

Risking a red card – the entire concept of superiority through birth is so ridiculous only the Brits could still cling to it at all. Why oh why did they ever let Charles II back in (note – I understand it was a fatal mistake by parliament to try and let ‘Tumbledown ****’ Cromwell succeed his father in the heridatary fashion they had fought to get rid off!). Instead of letting him back in we should have started dropping the aristocracy into the Channel (since pre-Plantagenet times over 90% of them are in purchased heriditary titles – so much for genetics and their argument that their ancestors were battle commanders or ‘great people’ – most were just merchants who saw opportunity when various ‘Henrys’ needed funds to raise armies).

Phew – that makes me feel better even if it bored you guys to tears.

Havak, I suspect you're a tight-head imposter!

Not at all – I’m just an edumacated man.