In reading the RIP grassroots rugby article by Cameron it got me thinking about my own rugby experiences all those years ago. What was it that attracted a fairly rough and tough working class boy to this world?
My reaction is it was the rugby clubs and the fun, atmosphere and the characters you met there. I thought that some of you might like to put down your reactions to clubs you have known and, if in this professional era, some of these clubs are lost then at least there might be a few memories that linger on.
My first club was a small club called Tonbridge (now called Tonbridge-Juddians) in Kent. I was asked to play by a friend from school days. At the time I was more interested in getting into a fight on a Saturday night than playing sport but I agreed to come along. I got a phone call from the club captain who said he would pick me up for training from home as I didn’t have a car. I lived on what Australians would call a housing commission estate and it was the roughest one in the town where I was born. Hughie Barkly turned up in an Aston Martin which embarrassed the hell out of me as all the other young toughies wanted to know if I had turned gay and my boyfriend was picking me up.
The club house was a wonder of Elizabethan timbers with girls’ knickers pinned to them. There were two bars, one called the Pansy room where the girls and wives preferred to drink. The club employed two full time stewards. Sydney and Albert both dressed in white waiters uniforms and they called you Sir (even me) and looked after the place. The club president, an old 1st world war soldier called Dudley LeMay, told me one night that at the outbreak of the great war all of Tonbridge’s 3 grades of players signed up together. Six of them came back alive.
On Saturday nights the stewards served a full cooked meal for all players and guests (opposition players). Then beer and more beer and songs and stories until the early hours then off to the local Indian restaurant or some party.
I left the UK and played in South Africa and the best club I ever played for was there. Villagers club in Cape Town is, to my mind, an institution. The rugby was serious but as soon as the game was over there was very little talk about the game. The socialising was amazing, the club would have had at least a couple of hundred people there after every home game and it seemed to me like a large very chatty family that all got on with one another. There were ex players some of them in their 70′s and a few ex Springboks who had played before apartheid when all the Villagers teams all had some coloured players in them. The girls always seemed dressed up to the nines for the night and the conversations and stories were so good sometimes I would have a date organised and forget to pick her up – try and talk your way out of that.
In NZ I played a season for a club called Linwood and although I didn’t enjoy the rugby in NZ, the club was interesting due to a player’s mum. Bruiser Brewer’s Mum was unbelievable – she would spend all day cooking for us players and the normal move was to finish the showers, have a couple of beers and boring talk analysing the game or how to fix cars, and then off to Bruiser’s place to eat. She had the house full of food all beautifully prepared and laid out in a smorgasbord. I wish she had been my mum.
In Australia I played at Gordon and although we had a lot of fun and I got banned a couple of times (like most players) it was a bit clicky for new players and it took a little while to get to know everybody. I have some good friends from those days and the club dances and functions were a hoot with ‘depth charges’ all round (a Blue drink with something white and deadly at the bottom to be drunk in one gulp) or drinking the yard of ale glass in one go. There were always some nice girls around on Saturday nights and we all got on pretty well.
The club I enjoyed playing against in Sydney was Norths – great atmosphere and a very good laugh until they banned all the first grade players one year. Easty Beasties were always a good social club with good food and good guys and Warringah were a great singing club with Harry Rainbow leading the chorus.
I wonder if this sort of thing still goes on at rugby clubs. I hope so.
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mardo said | April 11th 2008 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
If you want to hear more stories like this, I recome3nd Richard Beard’s “Muddied Oafs” a great rugby book.
Mark said | April 11th 2008 @ 1:27pm | Report comment
Great read stillmissit. Very entertaining. Harry Rainbow is the manager of my current rugby club. I havent heard him entertain the lads with his vocals yet but he doesn’t mind dressing up as Hyacinth from the show Keeping up Appearances. That day was a good after match drink.
Ben from Pretoria said | April 11th 2008 @ 5:06pm | Report comment
Stillmissit
I agree that rugby’s true soul is in the clubs, be they suburban or tertiary. For years South African club rugby has been in decline but there is a slow return to making these clubs viable again. With finances ruling the destiny of almost all sports these days it is inevitable that clubs without any financial backing would be relegated to the sidelines.
I don’t know if you remember Bellville club during your stay here, they were a real force at one stage when it was still amateur but now you will find many players at the universities such as Stellenbosch and Cape Town or drafted straight into Western Province, Boland or the Stormers.
If anyone is looking for a blueprint on how to get a competition going to the benefit of the players, spectators and the sport they should have a look at Francois Pienaar’s Varsity Cup that involved the top 8 universities in South Africa. They ran it along the same lines as the Monday Night College Football concept in the US with live broadcasts every Monday night. 18 000 attended the final in Stellenbosch. Adding to that is First National Bank’s Classic Clashes that broadcasts live schoolboy rugby between the best schools in the republic.
There may be a few pointers for the ARU on how to organize their national comp. With that they will generate interest in competitions WITHOUT having any stars(but grow them for the future) but bring back the rivalry between clubs with all it’s sideshows.
Rugby in SA is definitely not only about money and “the product” but are steeped in rivalry,friendship, humiliation, revenge, glory etc. All the things that make us human. THAT is the soul of rugby.
stillmissit said | April 11th 2008 @ 5:06pm | Report comment
Mark glad to hear he is still around and up to some tricks.
sheek said | April 12th 2008 @ 12:57pm | Report comment
Stillmissit,
Very true – rugby clubs are the heart of the game. But my constant argument is that Sydney & Brisbane cannot expect to do it alone, or in the overwhelming majority. More importantly, nor should Sydney & Brisbane club rugby be allowed to think they can continue to do it alone almost exclusively.
Nor should anyone think the Sydney & Brisbane private schools, especially the GPS schools, can remain the principle contributors. We need the contribution of schools & clubs from Perth, Melbourne & Adelaide, as well as Sydney, Brisbane & Canberra. We also want kids from diverse backgrounds, high schools & country schools, as well as private schools.
Rugby is becoming increasingly competitive worldwide. What worked in the past 100 years, may not be enough for the next 100 years. All that said, clubs are the lifeblood of the game, after the players themselves. Everything percolates from the ground up. If anyone needs a recent example of where faith in the status quo was unsustainable, think of West Indies cricket.
I like Ben from Pretoria’s example of University rugby in SA. Reprising the ARC, either in provincial/state or national club form, & playing matches on a Monday evening, or even Wednesday evening, makes practical sense. Attempting to schedule matches on the already overcrowded weekends, when they clash with NRL & AFL, won’t interest the TV networks. But during the week is another story.
Back in the 1970s, I thought RL had a great setup. They played premiership matches on the weekends, & a knockout comp midweek. It kept up interest in RL right through the week. I believe in SA, during their isolation period in the 1980s, played provincial/club matches on weekends, & had provincial/club knockout comps midweek. Ben from pretoria might confirm this.
It also frees up players for weekend club matches. The only problem is convincing RUPA to increase the ceiling for maximum matches per player from 30 up to 35. But in any case, truncating the S14, from 13-15 matches per team/players, to say 6-8 matches per team/players, would free up about 7-9 matches per elite player, which would be taken up by the ARC.
Australian rugby needs its clubs, & also a gradually rising & narrowing structure for players to climb from juniors to Wallabies.
westy said | April 12th 2008 @ 11:37pm | Report comment
I have three sons. All play league and rugby. I will use an average example . They all go to different schools reflecting their different interests. Two go to private schools the third to a state school. . The two at private school play and enjoy rugby at school . The team is made up of a very narrow range of ethnic groups which to be fair is not even representative of the schools. To take only one example of of an U/15 league team one son plays in they have 1 lebanese muslims, 2 tongans, 2 italians , 2 maltese Three Samoans , a Papuan , 3 lebanese maronites and 5 Anglo or Celts from a much more diverse socio economic background. One of the Tongan boys God love him has told us he is seeing a counsellor for anger management issues and he needs discipline..I note the islander boys first game and tradition is rugby and not league. I to have enjoyed the superior comraderie of a rugby club but it appears our doors were consciously or I would prefer unconsciously shut to some in our community. Private school rugby was a bulwark for Australian in the dark days but I now have genuine fears that it is a chain around our necks that prevents genuine competitive and inclusive junior district rugby. Get them to play it on Thursday and lave the weekends for participation in their general communities. Some rugby clubs in Australia merely extend exclusion into adulthood. Actually some of the subbies clubs have the best attitude. From an administration point of view the NSWRU would not have the balls to take on private school rugby and as I have been repeatedly told nor do they ever really want to.
sheek said | April 13th 2008 @ 7:57pm | Report comment
Westy,
Many years ago after sending Peter Fitzsimons an email, he replied that never in his born days had he read an email with the thoughts therein, as my email contained. Or words to that effect. The reason for Fitzsimon’s befuddlement is this.
I suggested that the good gentlemen running rugby union back in 1907-08, most if not all of whom would have been educated at Sydney University, & being from the exclusive upper echelons of society, were more interested in preserving amateurism than they were rugby union.
I further argued that while Sydney University held a distinguished place in Australian rugby’s history as the first club to be formed, it didn’t deserve to be treated as some ‘sacred cow’. Thus, you might understand Fitzsimons’ consternation.
My further researching & understanding of union & league history these past 7-8 years have only consolidated my thoughts. Back in 1907-08, those entrusted with running rugby union almost destroyed it. That they were left to almost singlehandedly nurse the code through the next 90 years, but especially through the 1920s, is no credit to them, because it was their actions that almost made union extinct in the first place.
I have nothing against Sydney Univeristy per se. Or any other Uni club team. But they are a symbol of exclusivity. For rugby union to progress, & make a quantum leap in player participation & popularity, it must embrace diversity.
Returning Sydney University to the suburban comp, & replacing it in the premier rugby comp with a district club, might only be symbolic, but it would be mightily symbolic. Of course, it won’t happen. And consequently, rugby union with its stigma of exclusivity, will remain only the 4th most popular football code in Australia.
Clarky said | April 14th 2008 @ 11:48am | Report comment
Some interesting comments all round. I’m currently involved with both junior (in coaching/admin) and subbies rugby as a player/coach so have some visibility of the issues raised.
Firstly, clubs at all levels are the lifeblood of the game. Without a strong junior base, rugby won’t grow and develop. Our junior clubs are provided little support from the senior ranks, and as mentioned by Westy, our competitions play Friday nights and Sundays because the private schools play Saturday and don’t release players to district clubs. Schools and junior clubs end up competing for players and their is no obvious pathway for boys to follow. GPS is not the only road to Wallaby selection these days.
Australian rugby needs to examine how it is structured and what support is in place. We have these state and national bodies, but what do they really provide to juniors and clubs? Some admin support and restructuring of competitions would be welcomed.
I don’t think banishing Sydney Uni to subbies is the answer (they already field a team in Division Six subbies) but there should be some alignment between junior districts and senior clubs, with a strong weekly national competition that enhances the pathway to Wallaby jerseys rather than confuses it.
Midweek national competitions, co-hosted junior and club game days, a realignment of the junior competition to support BOTH clubs and schools would all support a strengthening of the game in Australia.
stillmissit said | April 14th 2008 @ 1:38pm | Report comment
Clarky
Wouldn’t it be great if a Wallaby could come direct from Subbies? I remember 20 years ago doing a Subbies game around the Airport somewhere. This guy was playing 5/8th and was absolute dynamite about 6ft tall, 100kgs, great passer and stepped off both feet at full speed. Spoke to him after the game and his answer was all his mates play here and he didn’t want to join 1st grade at one of the Sydney clubs.
Nobody from any of the major clubs or state teams would have even seen this guy. Surely it can’t be that hard to grab some talent from Subbies and try them out in a higher level that is not a 1st grade Sydney club.
I can see it now Joe Smith, Wallaby, 25 games from 2009-2012 club Hawkesbury (fill in any club, they just happen to be a great bunch of guys locally to me). Then we could claim that we are making the most of the talent available to us.
It also assumes we have coaches who can spot talent not just coaches who buy what others have identified.
Structuring rugby across Australia is the ARU’s job and, as you have hinted at, it ain’t easy. Self interested state bodies and schools would have to be convinced of the benefits.
stillmissit said | April 14th 2008 @ 1:52pm | Report comment
Ben from Pretoria
I do remember a club called Bellville but for some reason I had it in my mind they were from Durban. Stellenbosch Uni was a formidable force and was the highlight of our season was to measure ourselves against them. Morne DuPlessey (Sp) was playing when I was there and runnng all over our back row. Villagers had a few Springboks at the time but the names are gone, I know one of them was a famous fullback who was at the end of his time when I played there in 73.
I played against False Bay one Saturday and they had a huge dutchman about 7ft tall who was winning every lineout. My captain told me I had to fix him, which didnt sit well with me as I could see some downside to this strategy. I punched him as hard as I could in the ribs in the next lineout. He came down picked my 115kgs like it was nothing and said “You do that again and I’ll kill you” “OK, I understand” I answered and told my captain to do his own strategic work in the future. Lucky to still be here.