I know it’s old news now but I enjoyed watching the rugger last Sunday because it was like a game from a different era with the weather playing a big part and wingers seeing less of the ball (not wholely like the ‘good old days’ as in those times wingers could go half a season without getting a pass). Englandshire played well enough to win and yet again we witnessed the extremely partisan Scottish support and this can appear unsavoury, unlike a haggis.
I’ve written before about this; the unnecessary large and hollow pillar in the middle of the away dressing room, the slow piping in of the away team bus allowing tartan wearing supporters to hurl abuse etc. This year we had the usual booing of the kicker but also a member of England’s backroom staff hit on the head by a full firkin of heavy.
As when I wrote the previous piece I was initially angered by this unsportingness but the new measured me resisted the urge to write unmeasured bollocks. Instead I read around the subject and came across the following academic piece:
Flowers of Scotland? Rugby Union, National Identities and Class
Distinction
And very interesting it is too, well it is to me. I learnt a few things about Scottish rugby such as the 2 distinct areas, namely the middle class privately schooled rugger in Edinburgh and Glasgow and the more classless rugby clubs in the borders such as Hawick and Melrose. When rugger became professional in the 90’s a split soon widened with many of the metropolitan elites decrying the loss of the old amateur, ‘gentlemanly’ game and teams such as Melrose taking quickly to the new era. Alongside this the poor old national soccer team was in decline, England had dropped the annual fixture, and so patriotic supporters saw an opportunity to express their nationalistic fervour and started supporting their rugby team. And ferverous they are, going the full Wallace wearing tartan kilts and faces and abusing the Sassenachs. This upset the more genteel burghers of Edinburgh, so they stopped wearing kilts and even went to less games.
Earlier this week I perused the comments section of various articles about the Murrayfield behaviour and many blamed Scottish Nationalism and the SNP, so this seems to play a part as well.
Throw in Eddie Jones stirring things up and the media whipping things further and you have a toxic mix.
Still, I learnt a new word: antsyzygy; The term Caledonian Antisyzygy refers to the “idea of dueling polarities within one entity”,[1] thought of as typical for the Scottish psyche and literature. The term, which is derived from the Greek word zygon (yoke) and syzygy (conjunction or alignment), specifically refers to the so-called “Scottish disjunction”
Sort of sums up the whole Murrayfield dilemma sorry disjunction.
And this behaviour is not restricted to the England Scotland game as there was booing at last year’s Glasgow/Leinster game.
I suspect this throws in the religious angle.
So in 2 years time I’m going to get me a ticket for the game at Murrayfield, don my morris outfit and afterwards in a local hostelry have a full and frank discussion about this stuff.
coinnigh ort love Duncan.
duncancer 