It’s a very sad day

For Rugby Union when some clever clogs suggests scrapping the scrum. Next they’ll be saying that tackling is too dangerous, oh yeah, how about that really hazardous running at full tilt towards the opposition touchline? Maybe body armour should be worn? Having spent more time in a scrum (Yes, as a forward) on the Rugby field than is probably good for me and having the scars to prove it, I would like to say a very profound and heartfelt GET A LIFE to the individual who has called for an end to the scrum. Without it you might as well be playing Rugby League, which is a totally different game altogether, and not half so much dirty fun as Union. I played Rugby League rules twice and didn’t enjoy it half as much. I missed the sheer physicality of Rugby Union. The immediacy of the scrum and ruck. No protection apart from your shirt, shorts and boots, and maybe a little Vaseline around your neck to cut down on chafing.

Personally I like physical risk. It defines you, gives you a fizz in the veins which is symptomatic of an often fatal disease called joi de vivre. Injury is sometimes the consequence of that risk. For those squeamish souls who do not know what risk truly means from a spiritual viewpoint, I would like to quote an American;

It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, at least falls while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt Citizenship in a Republic,"Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris,
April 23, 1910

“Without risks and dreams, voluntarily undertaken, we are all just marking time until oblivion.”

Bill Sticker, ‘Walking the Streets’ blog 29th May 2006.

Yes, it’s been a showery frustrating day and I needed to let off some steam.