My old junior rugby coach, an intellectual man given to deep thoughts, was always at pains to emphasise that rugby was a violent game. If you weren’t willing to both withstand and commit acts of violence, he reminded us, this was not the game for you.
Violence was in the spotlight over the weekend, as much of the attention given to the latest Super Rugby round was devoted to the red cards given to Drua players Frank Lomani and Jone Koroiduadua for elbowing and headbutting respectively.
The ill-discipline of the Drua players was a big factor in the second-half meltdown that saw them blow a lead and succumb to the Rebels, and it showed up one of the reasons why rugby is such a difficult art to master: the requirement to marry high aggression and a strong desire to inflict physical violence on others with accuracy and restraint.
Jone Koroiduadua is shown a red card. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Back in the day, the Norse berserkers were specialised warriors who would ritualistically work themselves into a frenzy before battle, attaining a state of such ferocity that their enemies would be overwhelmed by the animalistic savagery with which they rampaged into the fray. A few years later, Roy Masters would use much the same principle in rugby league when he required the Western Suburbs Magpies players to slap each other’s faces before a game, in order to provoke the appropriate level of anger. Simple idea: slap a man’s face enough and when he hits the field he’ll be ready to belt the excrement out of whoever’s in his path, his hindbrain throbbing with the message that the world is a cruel and slap-happy place and he must needs take revenge on it.
But Super Rugby in 2024 is not rugby league in the 1970s, nor is it Viking warfare. It is in fact a far more skilled affair than either, because a modern rugby player, unlike a berserker, must be worked into a frenzy while simultaneously remaining conscious of his duty of care to the opposition players.
The Vikings didn’t bother much with duty of care. Rugby league players in the 1970s even less so. But nowadays it’s essential, and not just because when the heat of battle has cooled, it’s not great to feel like you’ve done serious damage to a fellow human being: you can lose your side the game if you let your animal instincts get away from you.
There has always been a balance, of course, between aggression and control, that a rugby player must master. But right now it’s as difficult as it’s ever been to strike that balance, because the game has never been more conscious of player safety – or more harsh on any hint of foul play – while at the same time the need to win the collision, to crash with massive force into another human being and physically dominate them, has never been more important.
Frank Lomani. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
It’s a tricky business to get it right just in terms of precision: to hurtle into a tackle, ruck or maul with the right amount of intent and force to get the advantage over your opponent, without violating the rules, is no mean feat. In a rugby game, a fellow’s head could be anywhere – if you’re going to slam full-tilt into his body, it’s alarmingly easy to give the head a whack without even meaning to.
But that difficulty is exacerbated by the paradoxical nature of the mental state a rugby player must get into when heading into battle. When that old coach of mine waxed lyrical about the violence inherent in the system, it was a message that I pondered long and hard on, because the hardest part of the game for me was always generating the inner mongrel to throw myself with abandon into the more brutal tasks.
I would always be one of the biggest guys on the field, and quite capable of doing a lot of damage to anyone in my path, but while happy to absorb any level of punishment, it took a lot for me to get into the headspace where I’d instinctively be able to dish it out. Which is probably part of the reason why I never reached the highest heights of the game. That and the pies.
That headspace is vital to anyone who wants to be a serious rugby player. You’ve got to go out there ready to bash and crash and destroy, and that means training your brain to see every person wearing a jersey of a different colour to yours – at least for an hour and a half or so – not as a human being, but as a worthless sack of spuds who just said something incredibly rude about your mother.
Which is all well and good, but when you also have to train your brain to understand that you can’t punch the sack of spuds in the face, it requires a special kind of mental athleticism. And it doesn’t always come off quite right. That’s why you get elbows to the head and headbutts and the kind of brain explosions that get some players tagged as idiots or, in worse cases, the most vicious epithet of all: “grub”.
A grub in rugby isn’t a man who possesses an innate desire to do his fellow humans harm. He’s just one for whom the psychological tightrope walk between attacking the opposition like a bighorn in mating season and keeping on the right side of the rules is more difficult than it is for others.
Of course, there are those for whom that tightrope walk proves tricky in the other direction: the ones who struggle not to stay on the referee’s good side, but to make the collision with the requisite level of brutality. Rather than “grub”, they get tagged with “soft”. But the soft and the grub really have the same issue: the challenge of marrying berserker commitment with new-age sensitivity.
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This is of course something that enters into calculations with any contact sport, but the complications of rugby, with its myriad different ways of introducing massive human bodies to each other, and the modern-day prioritising of safety, make the threading of the needle in our game, in our era, as skilled an endeavour as it’s ever been.
In other words, rugby union has never been harder to play, and we should remember that even as we heap scorn onto the modern player. Not that we should stop heaping the scorn, because heaping scorn is fun: we should just keep it in mind. Because rugby is a game of violence, but also a game of applying the violence to exactly the right spot at exactly the right time. Perhaps that is why it’s so beautiful.
jimmy jones
Roar Rookie
do u champ
AgainAgain
Roar Rookie
Yawn
jimmy jones
Roar Rookie
More unread trash.. keep spreading your negativity, do yr thing champ
AgainAgain
Roar Rookie
Original… have a cry. And for the record you are the one trolling. The point that started this thread was by to me to someone else. You just cam in and threw your own small nasty comments in. And here you are projecting your shortcomings on to me. But don’t expect you have the intelligence to grasp that… hence you resort to banal comments about my missus, but in typical fashion you don’t like the response so the best you have is to have a cry. While you are looking for the tissues maybe you could locate a couple of brain cells,
jimmy jones
Roar Rookie
Predictable imps like you are a dime a dozen round these parts.. troll on small man.
AgainAgain
Roar Rookie
Actually that is where I first heard it from, just yours not mine.
jimmy jones
Roar Rookie
Funny..not what your missus said..
Footy Franks
Roar Rookie
I played in Australia and I generally think the Kiwis are clean players and generally thought rucking was fair. I just think it is more dangerous now that’s all. But if you go onto the field soft you will get hurt.
Khun Phil
Roar Rookie
Certainly remember the Michael Brial incident,but I don't think anyone excused him for his thuggish act.I don't care who they play for,we don't need things like that in the game.That is another one of the problems,some people excuse players from their own team from low acts but are quick to jump on others.
AgainAgain
Roar Rookie
You are a very small man jimmyjones.
K.F.T.D.
Roar Rookie
Ha ha -ha! sounds so much nicer than ‘taking the piss’, etc.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
Ken Catchpole. There I’ve said it.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
You might be already there Mo.
jimmy jones
Roar Rookie
It’s not just my opinion that kiwis are arrogant and entitled over rugby, plenty agree, even kiwis. I haven’t replied to your comments previously but I’ve noticed patterns and if anyone carries disdain and anger, writing from a position of bias and hate over many threads it is you. If you consider it self belief, confidence and intimidation to interrupt private conversations in public about rugby ( it’s the mindset I mentioned) not least to seek out and assault a 15 year old kid with his back facing the cowardly kiwi assailants simply for giggling at seeing a close up haka for the 1st time then that speaks volumes about you lot. I guess you likely celebrate the career of the thug meads and crippling Catchpole was simply required intimidation. With regard to Brial who nobody celebrates, that was years after meads loe and their dirty acts. Perhaps he was simply confident with self belief looking to intimidate. You have no comment on the schoolboy game yet proceed to try to defend the indefensible. If you’ve ever played a game let alone on tour you’d know what goes on in a huddle.. this was definitely a gd v evil scenario as there’s no reason to head hunt a centre without the ball from 1st kickoff. Even a 15 year old like me knew what a smug guilty look is and it was all over that dirty coach’s face. That dad showed remarkable restraint and should’ve actually escalated the situation to the cops or dished out local justice which the thugs would’ve likely appreciated. Seems like you would freeze and do nothing if your kid was attacked if you think harsh words in response to a targeted violent assault are too much. When on tour you represent yourself, your region and your country which they did with excellence.
jimmy jones
Roar Rookie
A funny story on that, I was in north Thailand a while back travelling with a few SA gals I met earlier in the golden triangle. I pointed out to them a giant of a man at the same cafe a few tables away who looked exactly like Bismark. They affirmed to me it was him and after some excited chatter approached him nervously, speaking in Afrikaans.. unfortunately he had no idea what they were saying.. He was only a shot-putter from Finland, not a Springbok.. :laughing:
AgainAgain
Roar Rookie
Totally agree. It is not part of the game and never should be or should have been. Totally thuggish behaviour. Unfortunately the game produces a few of them. Was a good try though. Do you remember the Michael Brial incident, as no-one ever seems to recall that or refer to it when talk of thuggish play comes up.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
For sure Jimmy ..Bismarck was a better hooker than John but Johns ability to play multiple front row spots was pure gold ..Then his leadership….But sooo many players at that time here in SA seemed in agreement that Bismarck was the real hard nut in SA Rugby ..And his parents naming him after a German Battleship ? They must have seen something in him the day he was born :stoked:
Khun Phil
Roar Rookie
OK,if it didn't break his nose that was more luck than lack of intent.It was still the act of a thug and,of course,eye gouging is worse and just reinforced what he was like. I still say,good Kiwi mates of mine(and I do have quite a few),glossed over the Carozza incident as nothing.
AgainAgain
Roar Rookie
‘1 guy gone rogue’ is too easy to excuse something more intrinsic to the kiwi mindest. I think it’s also an entitlement and arrogance issue with them and rugby. so your opinion trumps facts. Richard Loe acted on his own not as part of a collective, no matter your spin. Arrogance and entitlement could easy be argued as self-belief, confidence and intimidation. I know it doesn't fit with your anger, but from what you write and your clear bias I can understand why you see things the way you do. But have a look at Michael Brial wailing in on Frank Bunce, just for a bit of perspective. It isn't one way traffic and plenty of Australians have shown a tendency to go overboard. And nobody uses that to make the sort of generalisations that you do. Your other point about school boys on a rep team, I have no comment on as I wasn't there so will take your word for it, but terms like the dirty kiwis is just your own hate speaking. The kid's father threatening the coach (who you label as smug because it suits your narrative of good versus evil) was obvioulsy good in your eyes. I am not sure about pre-planned and dsicussed in the huddle without evidence. That is often called conjecture also to suit a narrative. However in saying all that, if what you say is true, which I have no reason to doubt, then yes that is poor, however one incident under one coach does not represent all New Zealanders, either that team, fans, people who play the game or those that don't play or follow it.
jimmy jones
Roar Rookie
‘1 guy gone rogue’ is too easy to excuse something more intrinsic to the kiwi mindest. I think it’s also an entitlement and arrogance issue with them and rugby. There was a schoolboy on a rep team ( I was in the wider squad so witnessed this) who reacted awkwardly and giggled at the haka of a touring nz school here a while back. At the 1st kick off the dirty kiwis charged at him off the ball and whilst unawares elbowed him in head without penalty. Obviously preplanned and discussed in the huddle. The kid’s father threatened the smug coach on the sideline and the game was almost abandoned due to retaliation by the local Aussie team.