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I’ve had enough! Ever since Saturday night, all I’ve heard and read is a lot of complaining and mean spirited comments against the Reds and their supporters.
Below are a few of the comments I have had to endure since Saturday night’s loss to the Sharks at Suncorp Stadium:
“What a pathetic performance. Didn’t deserve to even be there…. Remember you were standing up for Aussie rugby.”
“Reds you are terrible, Australian rugby is a joke!”
But the online vitriol didn’t stop there.
“Hahahahahhah….. that’s what you get all arrogant fans of the reds, Sharks absolutely screwed the Reds, and you deserve what you get. This just shows how poor the Australian conference is, your top team can’t even beat sixth place – justice is now served. So now please go crawl back into your hole and shut up. Thank you!”
These are just a few of the comments posted online by rugby fans from around the world since the loss and I’ve had a gutful. As a passionate Reds supporter, I was gutted by the loss and dumbfounded by the amount of hate towards the team, the players and their supporters.
Yes, I probably should have stayed away from the forums and websites, but I couldn’t help myself.
But what astounded me more than anything is the hate from Australian rugby fans toward us. Comments that the players and fans are arrogant, that we are bogans and don’t know the rules and that we are pathetic.
I know that we didn’t play to our usual standard and that the Sharks played a better game on the night, so rightly deserved the win. However, do we deserve the amount of hate laid at our feet?
The Reds, like the Sharks, had come into the qualifying final having won their last six matches in a row. One of those matches was against the Chiefs who were at the top of the table at the time of the clash.
We had won the Australian Conference rightfully after securing a bonus point win against the Waratahs, while the much favoured Brumbies lost at the final hurdle to the lowly ranked Blues.
We had suffered cruelly at the hand of the injury gods with our no. 10 jersey seemingly cursed. We lost our captain at the business end of the season, and yet we still made it to the finals.
We had two of our top players face the SANZAR judiciary and receive, in my humble opinion, suspensions that were not fitting the crime. As Quade Cooper tweeted earlier this week SANZAR = Lottery!
We achieved a record average crowd of 34,000 and increased memberships by 100% this season.
We are also the team who came from second last on the ladder in 2009 to Super Rugby Champions in 2011 so we have a right to be proud of the team after so many years in the wilderness.
I for one am proud of how far we got with everything that happened this season. Just a few weeks before the finals, it didn’t event look like we would make it. It was a great achievement to make the playoffs from that situation.
Yes, I’ll admit we are in the weakest conference, especially with the Waratahs having one of their worst seasons this year. But we all must remember that South Africa also has two of the lowest ranked teams in their conference in the Cheetahs and the wooden spoon Lions.
It was also South Africa who demanded the home final for all of the conference winners, not Australia. The fact that the Reds are the ones who have taken advantage of this situation this season is purely out of their hands, so it’s time to move on.
The Reds have made the best of the situation and worked hard despite everything that was thrown at them this year and they still made it to the finals.
By most other teams’ standards, the Reds had a great year. So, rugby fans, lay off my Reds!
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.