A Cloud Descends Over Welford Road

Posted by on January 30, 2010 in Rugby | Leave a comment

I went to the rugby last night – and it was the most dire game I’ve ever seen. There was no atmosphere, the teams lacked any intensity and, all in all, it was a shocker. Ironically, we left with 7 minutes to go and the scores shot up from about 11-3 to 27-11 in the last few minutes – but frankly it wouldn’t have made any difference to the match.

Given all that’s going on at present off-field, with the Tigers having dropped out of Europe and ongoing litigation as a result of the 16-man furore, it’s weird to see something like this have a tangible effect on the pitch. As a layperson/bystander, it’s hard to see how professional sportsmen can be affected by off-field factors to such and extent – but given it was a match against an old rival and all previous encounters that I’ve seen have been furious, it’s the only explanation I can fathom.

Still the curry afterwards made up for it and I’m firm believer that sport has to have bad days to make the good ones all the better for it.