- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Not for the first time, Britain have taken out the title of the world’s greatest whingers – with Scotland’s latest effort a particularly good showing.
But was it Britain’s best ever? The Squid takes a look at Britain’s long and proud history of whinging at International sporting events.
First, let’s go back to 1986. Argentina are playing England in the quarter final of the Football World Cup. The moustaches are bushy and the shorts are tight. 115,000 people are crammed inside a sweaty stadium in Mexico City.
Suddenly, in the 51st minute the ball pops up high in the air and England’s keeper Peter Shilton comes to claim it routinely, when out of nowhere, like a kelpie chasing a Frisbee, Diego Maradona appears and knocks the ball in the net with his hand.
“We woz wobbed” came the cries from the England fans after the game. Never mind then, that Maradona also scored one of the greatest goals ever shortly after that, or that England were outplayed for the majority of the match. Of course it was all down to that one moment.
Of course it was.
Fast forward to 2009, Ireland are playing France in a sudden death playoff to qualify for the 2010 World Cup at a packed Croke Park in Dublin. They are full to the brim with pale, freckled faces with fair hair, drunk on passion and whiskey.
With the scores tied over two legs and only 17 minutes before the dreaded penalty shootout, Thierry Henry channelled the soul of Maradona and handled the ball in the build up to the William Gallas’ eventual winner. Quelle Catastrophe!
Never mind the six-month qualifying campaign or 10 other matches that were played, the only reason Ireland did not qualify was because of Thierry Henry’s handball.
One year on we are back with England. It’s the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and England are being torn apart by German Blitzkrieg.
It’s 2-0 after 32 minutes but truth be told England should be down by plenty more. Matthew Upson manages to claw one back, before Frank Lampard sends a cruise missile past Manuel Neuer that crashed inside the goal, after a detour off the underside of the bar.
A great goal, wrongfully disallowed. England went on to lose 4-1. Predictably, the pack of hounds that is the British press focused on the disallowed goal but England were outplayed by Germany throughout.
A year later and it was Wales’ turn. France are playing the Welsh in Auckland at the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup, when Sam Warburton lifts a French player above the horizontal and drops him dangerously on the base of his neck.
Allain Rolland rightfully sends the Welsh captain off and Wales go onto to lose. Of course, there is no analysis about why Wales weren’t good enough to beat the French. All the press focus on is ‘that’ red card. Those pesky Frogs were up to their no good, cheating tricks again.
Which brings us to the most recent example of British whinging. Scotland had played admirably, far better than anyone had expected. They were rather fortunate to be given a few penalties at scrum time but you’re unlikely to read that in a British newspaper.
Craig Joubert, who’s not usually well liked by Australian rugby fans at the best of times, made what looked like a correct call – ruling that a Scottish player had caught the ball in an offside position after his teammate knocked on.
Replays showed that Nick Phipps had touched the ball on the way, so in fact the penalty was wrongly awarded, but alas the law states Joubert can’t go to the TMO. Ice man Bernard Foley still had to step up and kick it – and to his credit, after a crap night with the boot he did the job.
Scotland were fortunate to be in the quarter finals at all after Greig Laidlaw’s knock on against Samoa cruelly kicked out tournament darlings Japan, and numerous contentious penalties kept the Scots in a game in which they were mostly outplayed. You won’t find any of that in British paper. Brave Scotland were robbed by those bloody convicts.
The image of Scotland’s fullback pointing Joubert to the dressing room as the South African ran from the field, fearing for his safety will long live in the memory as one of the greatest moments of sportsmanship in the history of the game.
The British grow up on grand stories of being robbed by the ‘other’. Glorious defeat at the hands of an antagonist is what they thrive on. Never mind that the host nation couldn’t even make it out of their group, or that not a single northern hemisphere team will be playing in the semi-finals.
It’s not because they are not good enough. It’s all Maradona’s fault, or Henry’s, or Germany’s or Allain Rollande’s, and most definitely it’s all Craig Joubert’s fault!
“We woz wobbed”
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.