The Rugby Chronicles 3: Brutal, but nice.
Dark skies, rumbling thunder, flashing lightning: RP faces Kazakhstan in the bowl final. Photo by JZ.
Even if you have seen rugby on TV, watching it live for the first time is disconcerting. It looks chaotic and barbarous; it does not seem to make sense. If you have become friendly with the players your face is frozen into a grimace—they are getting clobbered.
But here’s the thing: they signed up to get clobbered. On some level, they want to get clobbered.
This is one of the reasons the sport of rugby may be a hard sell in the Philippines. It’s not that Pinoys don’t want to get hurt—we have full-contact basketball, and we have some terrific boxers. But Pinoys value paporma, papogi, looking good. Why would anyone want to get beaten up and not get paid for it?
The Rugby Chronicles 3: Brutal, but nice in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Philippine Star.
Justin Coveney was named Most Improved Player, Noel Flowers the Coach’s Player, and Patrice Olivier the Players’ Player of the Philippine team at the Borneo 7s. Photo by JZ.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
January 23rd, 2011 at 09:38
Rugby is contradiction personified. I used to think these rugby players have death wishes or have masochistic tendencies, but I guess the adrenaline rush and energy that the sport has gives them some unexplainable satisfaction that I can never put my finger on.
In the words of the late Pepsi Paloma,”It’s a crazy planets!”