Thursday, January 30, 2014

In England, Young Rugby Players Are Being Taught That The Way To Win Is To Lose

As Stuart Lancaster makes his final Six Nations preparations, England's next generation of budding rugby internationals have been told that their competitions must have no winners and that if they are losing a match, the teams will have to be changed.

I guess it's "Zen Rugby" now.  This is a pity, as rugby was the only English sport that I ever enjoyed playing.  Football [soccer] was mostly running up and down a field for an hour and a half and getting hysterical with joy when someone finally scored a goal, and cricket...well, who could ever figure out cricket?  I don't think the players knew the rules, either. 

I always liked that, in rugby, once you were tackled you could still get up and potentially score.  In fact, I recall running down the field with the ball while also carrying three pasty Englishmen.  I was hard to tackle in my teenage years.  Nowadays, I trip over the cat.