Rugby Talismans, Mandela Ethos, and Women in the scrum

RUGBY: With the dawn of the 2012 season and as we put on the talisman of Rugby, we invoke the hope that there would be a new charm and a vibrancy that will revitalise the quality of rugby at both school and club levels. It's also an occasion to reminisce.

Rugby has always had its special lure, particularly when two good teams were matched against each other. On such occasions, festival atmospheres prevailed.

Men would turn out in their nattily clad suits and women in their evening's best with contrastingly beautiful and lavishly decorated fashions.

Hemlines would swish around the ankles. Rugby players wore shorts that were knee-ticklers. That was also the time when broken shins, cracked heads, torn coats and lost hats were considered minor hazards. Sleeves of their jerseys were rolled up - possibly to catch up on time in the event of fisticuffs. Yet, there was civility too in some form or fashion! A photograph of two rugger teams taken some 90 years ago in the Ceylon Sunday Times Illustrated shows the two linesmen attired, incongruously though, in full suit, top hat and all!

Low priced tickets

In what was considered the big match of the year the Colombo vs. Up-Country rugby encounter, 7,000 fans were reported to have been present. The gate collections that year were Rs. 5,000. To give context, the tickets in 1923 were priced between the princely sum of Rs. 1 and Rs. 3.

Some 130 years ago, a rugger team comprised 20 players, and in those days scoring was decided by a majority of Goals only-not tries and goals. One recalls that in the film 'Molly Maguires' shown in the early 1970s where a historic rugger match was enacted, the number of players on each side were around 20, where violence and intimidation abounded among the Molly Maguire fraternity.

Contrast with 'Invictus,' the 2009 film produced by Clint Eastwood, where 15 players a side are featured in the epic story of Nelson Mandela and the Rugby World Cup.

This was a watershed film. Here Mandela, having been imprisoned for 27 years for his fight against apartheid, is released.

On becoming President of South Africa, he turns to the Rugby World Cup event that his new administration hosted and uses the game and its message to reject revenge, forgives his oppressors and finds hope of national unity in an unlikely place - the rugby field!

Morgan Freeman, who was an Oscar nominee for portraying Mandela, and Matt Damon (nominee for best supporting actor) bring to life the ethos of the Mandela message that inspired the underdog South African Team to win the World Cup in the wake of protests by the black community that Rugby was a white man's preserve.

Fighting spirits of rugby

Through the intervention of Mandela, the universal language of sports was translated elegantly to bring new meaning to the fighting spirit of rugby.

Rugby has indeed been presented in the international arena in many forms, with the World Cup being the showpiece, while variations such as rugby league, touch rugby, rugby sevens, wheel-chair rugby and rugby union have sprouted. Some refer to rugby as an outgrowth of football or soccer as we know it.

Which game is more civil? This has always been a matter of hot debate in pavilions and club houses, especially after a few stiff ones are downed. There is the old British saying, albeit unkindly put, that "Football is a gentleman's game played by ruffians' and rugby is a "ruffian's game played by gentlemen!" It's at one's own peril if any attempt is made to bring this debate to a conclusion.

Women's Rugby 125 years

Not to be out done, the lesser appreciated fact is that Women's Rugby is over 125 years old-or to be politically correct, young! This is in spite of various social pressures and lack of sponsorship including from the International Rugby Board. It was only in 1990 that the first women's international rugby tournament was held in New Zealand, where Wales, USA, England, France, Canada, Sweden, USSR, Japan, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands participated.

It is reported that the competition was so poorly funded that the Russian players sold souvenirs, and four England administrators re-mortgaged their houses to cover expenses!

As opposed to being well attired spectators and by-standers, there were groups of women who were passionate about adopting what was a man's game.

The story of Emily Valentine brings this passion to life in her 1887 Memoirs:

"I loved rugby football, but seldom got a chance to do more than kick a place kick or drop goal, but I could run in spite of petticoats and thick undergarments. My real ambition was to play in a real rugby game and score a try..... at last my chance came. I got the ball-I can still feel the damp leather and the smell of it, and see the tag of lacing at the opening.

I grasped it and ran dodging and darting, but I was so keen to score that try that I did not pass it, perhaps when I should have. I still raced on; I could see the boy coming towards me. I dodged; yes I could be breathless, with my heart pumping, my knees shaking. I ran. Yes, I had done it; one last spurt and I touched down, right on the line."

When will women play?

As we bring this journey down Memory Lane to a close, the question from the Pavilion now is: when, if ever, will Women's Rugby be formalized, or better still, earn corporate sponsorship in Sri Lanka? Yes there was a weak attempt some years back to introduce women's rugby, but maybe the time has come to take up this challenge in earnest! Any takers? Any sponsors?!