An atom bomb under Twickers would set back the cause of fascism in this country by a generation
Rant warning.Watching England v France at rugby and later planning to watch England v Denmark at football is a profoundly depressing experience. It's always unclear to me why TV execs think fans want ridiculously one-sided commentating, but that's what we get -- England players are mischievous while French ones cheat, blatantly clear French tries are discussed for hours about how maybe the ball didn't touch the ground etc etc. One has to say it's much worse in football -- there the presumption is that the referee is anti-England and plans to cheat. [Addition: The half-time analysis in rugby actually has been very good]
Back to rugby, a game of which I am a recent convert, a newly enjoyable thing after the debate on Crooked Timber (from where the title quote is taken*) over the past week is that it's no longer socially unacceptable to admit you want France to win (or Anyone But England as Dennis Skinner used to say). THis doesn't apply in football but in rugby it always has, partly because most of my rugby friends are Welsh but also because one can't disassociate the rugby team with its moronic support, most of whom in their Hackett shirts are braying as I write, squeezed into pubs in supposedly 'nice' (as far as I can see this is merely because they have a Tootsies burger bar and maybe a Pizza Express) areas of London such as Fulham, Chiswick and of course Twickers itself. The other strange thing is the general view that rugby players are somewhat better than their football playing counterparts. This I suppose is due to a curious mix of class-hatred (working v middle) and money-envy(rich v poor), but it's just not true. International football has never had a scandal to match the fact that the England rugby captain admitted to taking class-A drugs whilst on tour.
* Incidentally although this is a reasonably sound idea I think a few Hacket fascists would survive. A second nuke under the 7am Eastbound District Line at Hammersmith should mop up any remaining. (8)
posted by Matthew @ 11/16/2003 09:53:00 AM
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