The ruffian’s game

“Rugby is great. The players don’t wear helmets or padding; they just beat the living daylights out of each other and then go for a beer. I love that.”

Joe Theismann

Long term followers of these scribblings (and I know for a fact that some such there be) will not be surprised should one or more of the postings that will appear over the next six weeks take as its subject the very ‘ruffian’s game’ of the post title. Indeed, a brief scroll through the archive of this blog will reveal this to be something of a theme at this time of the year.

Now, this is at least in part because it is February – in the Northern Hemisphere! Nothing much else really happens in February except that we all sit tight and wait for the winter storms to blow themselves out – or at least to get bored enough of the whole winter business that they decide to kick back and to give spring a go.

I say that nothing much happens. The exception is of course – rugby!

This very weekend in Europe the 2019 Six Nations Championship has kicked off. Here in North America the 2019 Americas Rugby Championship has done likewise – though since this latter tournament includes Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina (2nds) there are at least some matches played in other than arctic conditions.

As if that weren’t excitement enough this year is Rugby World Cup year and all of the matches take on extra significance as pointers to how our favoured squads might perform in Japan come September and October.

So – how did the first weekend go?

Well, Wales and France – in Paris on Friday evening – both seemed reluctant to take the honours in the first game up. Wales were terrible in the first period – trailing at half time by 16 – 0. In the second half the French decided to help the Welsh out and gifted them a brace of tries. Wales finally squeaked through and narrowly won the match.

Scotland hosted Italy at Murrayfield and for the first seventy minutes did what was expected and ran in five tries. Unfortunately they then decided to take their collective feet off the pedal and allowed Italy to help themselves to three late scores. Scotland still won comfortably enough but – given that they next face pre-tournament favourites, Ireland – there is clearly much room for improvement.

Speaking of Ireland – their status as bookies favourites was a result of their stellar year last year, during which they won the Grand Slam and beat the fearsome All Blacks at home for the first time to elevate themselves to the number two slot in the world rankings. This weekend they faced England in Dublin (never an easy place to win away) with the visitors themselves having endured a difficult year in 2018. To everyone’s surprise England proved to have recovered their mojo. They not only beat the Irish but they gave them a serious schooling. It looks as though the championship might be more open than previously expected.

Sadly, though leading Uruguay in Montevideo by 17 – 13 to well past the eighty minute mark Canada yielded to the hosts’ pressure under the posts at the death and lost the game 20 -17. Let us hope that the Canadians have pulled their socks up by the time we see them in Langford later in the championship.