Rolling Rugby Thread

Murphy

Murphy

cat malogen
Grim as fuck. 41 and kids to raise, who won’t recognise him either before too long.

My rugby ‘memories’ are all marred by concussions. Our regional schools team selected from a bunch of local state schools and I got called in to play against Millfield. Build up was massive. Terry Cobner was their coach for one thing, Pooler, Wales and the Lions, plus they were pvt/scholarship. We knew it was going to be a war.

Can’t remember the match at all except I got seren y gem playing blindside flanker/no6. Got into school the next day and the PE teacher called me in for a debrief. ‘Terry Cobner gave you that award, you should blah blah’, except my memory was blank. Couldn’t remember the scrums, scrapping in rucks and couldn’t even remember getting home. Worst of all, couldn’t remember shaking TC’s hand, the epitome of a personal hero.

Quit not long after and a mate got a spinal compression that left him in a wheelchair. And yet we still cheer.
 
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Beast of Burden
In my school there was a story about a kid who got paralyzed at Llandovery or Millfield when a scrum collapsed, but in retrospect I wonder if that was an urban myth that went around all of these rugby-playing Welsh private schools.
 
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Beast of Burden
I was terrible at rugby - the whole thing that the rugby coaches would tell you (in all seriousness!) that it was safer to tackle harder than to flinch and duck out seemed completely counter-intuitive and mentally deranged to me. Having grown up in Swansea and spent most of my young life bumming around the beaches of the Gower, going to secondary school in the Brecon Beacons and being chucked onto a field to play rugby, a game I knew nothing about, was a horrifying experience. That first wet cold afternoon up in the mountains this fat farm kid who had the nickname 'Sheep' (a badge he wore with honor throughout his whole time at school) stepped on my leg with his rugby spikes in the middle of what I soon learnt to call "a maul". I was outraged - literally like "what the hell are you doing???" and his reply was (basically) "get used to it, pal." I couldn't believe it! I was too enraged to say what I was thinking, which was something like "but...but...I'm an aesthete!"
 
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Beast of Burden
The whole thing was made worse by the fact that they decided, irrevocably, on that first afternoon, that I was perfect second row material, so I had to learn about the whole appalling package of scrums, ruck and mauls, and be expected to participate in them. It was so ludicrous.

Eventually, after a couple of years, I was allowed to duck out of this and spend every winter afternoon doing things like squash, badminton or (ahem) unsupervised "cross country running", which was supposed to be a shameful cop out in my school (you'd be called "the dregs") but actually, and always, seemed like a better deal to me.

In the summer I would excel at athletics because I was tall, lanky but also a fast runner, so I'd get all these rugby teachers telling me I had to sign up the next winter, that they could see great potential in me, but every time I'd be like, "you've gotta be joking."
 
Murphy

Murphy

cat malogen
The Skiving of the Long Distance Runner.

We had it out with both Christ College from Brecon and Haberdashers from Monmouth, their packs were a pile of cunts. Lot of English and one or two monied Taffs. You wouldn’t see lads like Lydiate from Builth, because they were comprehensive and only public schools toured fully. Exception was a team from Gorseinon, complete opposite socially but still yetis. First tackle was 20 kids kicking fuck out of each other. Organised savagery and that’s not overstating it.

Of the set-pieces, the scrum has almost mythical status. Reading the the Steve Thompson story today, jfc. My Mum and clan worship the P’pool front row. Then you see a story like Bobby Windor who went right off the deep end, wonder about past head trauma. We were taught to ruck our own team if they weren’t releasing the ball, key targets - ankles, knees, bollocks or boot to the face. You know those old forward boots above the ankle? Hurts less if you get rucked out. Back torn by studs, constant fighting.

Thing is, tall lads would be 2nd row material every time, so if you had continued your staff would have tried to put 3 stones on you and then thrown you at walls.
 
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Beast of Burden
Christ College was my school. Then, funnily enough, I went to a Sixth Form college in Gorseinon.
 
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Beast of Burden
Well, you'd never have encountered me in a scrum anyway. I'd have been in the art room mooning over some girl in the Sixth Form.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
WashYourHands said:
The Skiving of the Long Distance Runner.

We had it out with both Christ College from Brecon and Haberdashers from Monmouth, their packs were a pile of cunts. Lot of English and one or two monied Taffs. You wouldn’t see lads like Lydiate from Builth, because they were comprehensive and only public schools toured fully. Exception was a team from Gorseinon, complete opposite socially but still yetis. First tackle was 20 kids kicking fuck out of each other. Organised savagery and that’s not overstating it.

Of the set-pieces, the scrum has almost mythical status. Reading the the Steve Thompson story today, jfc. My Mum and clan worship the P’pool front row. Then you see a story like Bobby Windor who went right off the deep end, wonder about past head trauma. We were taught to ruck our own team if they weren’t releasing the ball, key targets - ankles, knees, bollocks or boot to the face. You know those old forward boots above the ankle? Hurts less if you get rucked out. Back torn by studs, constant fighting.

Thing is, tall lads would be 2nd row material every time, so if you had continued your staff would have tried to put 3 stones on you and then thrown you at walls.
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Yep - I started in second row purely based on height and was delighted when they moved me to flanker. Eventually I stopped getting picked as I was physically far too puny as things got more serious. I wasn’t unhappy - getting regularly thumped and bawled out for shirking in tackles wasn’t worth the pay off for being king of the line out.
 
Murphy

Murphy

cat malogen
6 Nations due. Allow one privilege first :poop:🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿:poop: .

Assuming Covid could fuck this year’s tournament too, pretty tight between Ireland and Wales, with France and Engyuck edging it.

I like Eddie Jones. He doesn’t fuck around, sense of humour, insane volume with that talent pool to work with. France seem a different beast from a few years back. Tasty pack. Quality 9 and 10 axis.

If it goes the distance, sincerely hope Owen Farrell gets sparked out.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
i let my nz half take precedence when it comes to rugby. never support england. all the halflings on this thread are the same. we have quite a few half welsh half english crossbreeds and they all support wales.
 
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