I haven't posted much about rugby here at all over the past year, well actually maybe once? I've covered soccer, golf, boxing, athletics and even volleyball, but not a whole lot about rugby. If I'm ever to talk about rugby though, it's likely to be around this time of year though because for the Irish international rugby team, there are basically two trophies up for grabs. They are the world cup which is held every four years and the six nations which is held annually in February and March where Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, France and Italy go head to head. Every team plays each other and the with the most points at the end is crowned champions.
Rugby is a physical game of course and when I think of Physical sports, I can't help thinking of Hurling, so this post will be dedicated to the ancient tribalistic game of Hurling. It's been at least 3 hours since I talked about it on Hive! Ha ha, that's a little in joke for 
Rugby Respect
So the auld egg ball game is one I never got into as a youngster, I was drawn more to soccer and the GAA, but some of my friends played rugby and it always held a sort of prestige. Looking back, as we sometimes tend to do, I think rugby would have been a good sport to get into as a young lad. It teaches you things which the likes of soccer never really can in it's current guise anyway. That is respect. I think the photo below sums it up really. You have massive units of men, many carrying eighteen stone of muscle around the pitch. Most bring aggression, athleticism and skill to their craft, but one thing they all bring is respect, both for their opposition and for the referee.
The respect for the referee is further exemplified in this image taken during a European game between Leinster and Ospreys. Even questioning the referee's decision or talking to him or her with any level of disrespect would quickly lead to an early shower or a sin binning.
Soccer Disrespect
Let's compare this now to soccer for a second. Again, let's let some images do the talking. Here we have arguably the best player of the last decade, with the exception maybe of Messi and also former Man United skipper Roy Keane, one of the best players of his era. Are they showing any degree of respect here for the referee?
Not a bit of it. In my eyes, the powers that be must weed out this insolence and downright disrespect and dish out red cards for this kind of carry on. I don't care if the players are the best in the world, if anything that should make them know better. The problem is the game itself has allowed this to fester over many years, so they are the ones that need to fix it.
Even Worse
Allowing this deficit of respect to accumulate, leads to scenes like the one below, where Paulo Di Canio not only verbally abuses the ref, but shoves him to the ground as well. That is what happens when respect is removed. Is this the kind of exampe we want to show our kids or are other sports like rugby better for role models?
The answer here of course is obvious and I think if I was a kid again, it may well be rugby that I got into as a kid, rather than soccer.
In fairness though, part of that is because kids growing up today in Ireland have a realistic chance to represent our local Rugby team Connacht who play at the highest level in Europe. You see rugby turned professional in 1995 and that suddenly meant you could earn a living playing the sport and still live in Ireland.
Previously most kids dreamed of the big sporting stage in England's top flight for soccer. Back then, talented Irish soccer players would have to travel to England, aged as young as 15, if they wanted to play professionally and 97% of those who travelled over never made the grade. They would arrive home in their early twenties with no education and filled with disappointment that their dreams never came through.
At least with the rugby, if you showed great talent and potential as a youngster, you could remain living at home and still get your education, while also trying to follow the dream of sporting greatness.
Add to this the fact that rugby helps to foster respect in players from Under 6 right the way up to the top players in the world. Soccer has lots of catching up to do in this regard. It needs to be done in a top down fashion though with Fifa taking the lead. Should it happen? Absolutely. Will it happen? Probably not.
Respect costs nothing but adds massive value to sport in my opinion, not least because sports greatest are the role models that our children look towards these days. Do we want them to throw their toys out and scream in the face of authority or give people the respect that they deserve?
That's it for now.
The photos used in this post are not my own and were sourced at the following URLs:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/paolo-di-canio-push-referee-dies-6wlwdxdbv
