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In a recent article, Richard Hinds joined the seemingly ever-increasing list of Australian media commentators jumping on the bandwagon to bash rugby union (think Patrick Smith, Mark Latham, Paul Sheehan etc).
In his most recent Herald column, Hinds has missed the mark yet again. Take, as a starting point, this quote: an “essential truth (of football is that)…fans of major football codes do not support “the game” or, even country, first. Their greatest devotion lies with their club.”
To evidence this he cites the case of international vs club soccer/football, as well as the lack of interest in the current Four Nations rugby league tournament and the International Rules series between the AFL and the GAA.
The most glaring error in this thesis is that he seems to have forgotten about the second largest international footballing code in the world – rugby union (American and Canadian football are essentially two different sports – at least in the opinion of the fans – and Test matches are extremely rare).
Other holes in his thesis include the fact that, firstly, AFL is largely unknown to the outside world, and rugby league internationally has been making extremely slow progress post-1907; thus, it is questionable as to whether these can really be called major football codes at all, particularly the former. Furthermore, the notion that soccer fans prefer club to country or even ‘the beautiful game’ itself is highly debatable.
It does appear to be the case in England, that the perennially under-performing and over-paid national side comes a distant second in terms of the rabid devotion that the clubs of the bloated premier league seem to attract, but this notion of club before the national side doesn’t seem so watertight if one removes the Anglo-centric goggles.
Do soccer fans in African nations, USA, Holland, Uruguay, Brazil etc really support their club first? I lived in Brazil for seven months, and I think from what I saw, devotion to “O Selecao” is paramount. Any time the international side (‘the green and yellow’) plays, petty club tribalisms are (easily) set aside – government officials and bean-counters regularly bemoan the loss of income (for the rich, of course!) during international fixtures and, every World Cup, a new samba is composed for the team!
Essentially, in a considerably poor journalistic effort – something which seems to be becoming more common for the formerly-reliable Hinds – it appears that he has based a sweeping assumption on: firstly, the English fans attitude to their perennially disappointing national team, and secondly, the popularity of clubs in the national competitions of internationally-minor rugby league and internationally non-existent Australian football.
I’m so tired of commentators either bashing union or, perhaps worse, ignoring it as if it isn’t there, as Hinds does here.
In an article which purports to be about major football codes, the omission of union is pathetic, especially when one considers that this weekend the Wallabies will play a match in Japan, the only other World Cup (of any real international competition and, thus, significance) will be held next year in NZ, and in 2012 the current Tri-Nations tournament will be expanded to encompass South America, in the form of Los Pumas of Argentina.
It’s unbelievable that Hinds declined to even mention union, whilst considering it relevant to reference the lopsided Four Nations rugby league tournament (which seems to have a revolving door of teams – one year PNG and the next year France), and even more ridiculously, the bizarre ‘Aussie-Aussie-Aussie Inc.’ bully-boys of the Australian sporting landscape, the AFL’s International Rules team (hopefully there won’t be a repeat of the shameful scenes of a few years ago, where ‘our boys’ practically assaulted the amateurs of the Irish code, a number of whom required hospitalisation).
Have any of these knockers posing as journalists actually watched any rugby this year, from the terrific, final Super 14, followed by the most exciting Tri-Nations series for years?
It seems to me that they haven’t in which case, I wish they would desist from lobbing grenades from the soap-box and, instead, leave it to people who actually know something about the game.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.