Now my son has finished playing rugby I am no longer exposed to that particular type of rugby union club member who would delight in contrasting the alleged saintly behaviour and respect for the rules and refs shown by rugby players with that of professional and other footballers.
Shame, because I would have relished drawing their attention to the truly disgusting actions of the England and Argentina Sevens teams who essentially stopped playing for two minutes to ensure both qualified for the knock out stages of the World Rugby Sevens tournament at the expense of Canada. Both lost in the quarter finals.
This is not to excuse the often appallingly unsportsmanlike stuff we see on football pitches, just a glass houses comment.
I am honestly very surprised at that response from you.I can't get angry at this.
Everyone would do the same and if England find themselves in a similar position at the up coming football WC, I'd want them to do exactly the same.
I am honestly very surprised at that response from you.
Remember the Disgrace of Dijon, the fixed match between West Germany and Austria in the 1982 World Cup? I struggle to believe that you would have been happy with England being one of the teams involved. Can’t see much difference between that and this England v Argentina collusion.
If it was just one side opting to play a certain way, that’s fine. But in this case the England player crossed the line, was deliberately not challenged by the Argentinians who didn’t chase back, and stood there for two minutes before grounding the ball, taking instruction from the bench. They stopped competing in order to manipulate the result. It was both teams colluding to fix the result in their mutual favour at the expense of another. Cheating in my book. Plus the spectators should have got their money back. And the ref should have sent a couple of players off, instead of standing meekly by, as he did apparently.Yeah, maybe I was in a particularly 'meh' state of mind when I replied.
Let's just say I understand it happening.
I agree it is a little uncomfortable.
I maintain though, that if England were in this quite rare situation, and they kept attacking, got caught on the break and lost, I'd be very unhappy that they didn't make sure they progressed.
Bye bye Worcester, bye bye Wasps…..this business model looks seriously bust.