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Expectant Wallabies fans willing to risk further pain
Philip Derriman
September 13, 2008
SQUARE EYES
MAYBE you were one of those rugby fans who, after seeing the Wallabies' pitiful performance in Johannesburg, vowed never to watch the national team again. But now, just two weeks later, chances are you'll happily tune into Channel Seven for tonight's Bledisloe Cup match.
It's not that you've forgiven the Wallabies for letting you down so badly against the Springboks, rather it's just that time has dulled the pain and you're willing to give them another chance.
That's the problem with Australian rugby fans: we expect the Wallabies to perform as if they are the best team in the world, whereas more often than not they're only third best and sometimes fourth best. The Irish have a better attitude. They love it when their team occasionally beats the big guns, but they don't despair when they lose to the likes of the All Blacks - they didn't count on winning anyway.
One consequence of taking defeat to heart is bearing animosity towards the nation inflicting the defeat. Sport is supposed to draw nations together. As China's foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said before the Beijing Olympics: "We hope and believe that all athletes … will make efforts to promote friendship among the peoples of the world."
In fact, sport often has the opposite effect - a fact recognised as far back as the 1930s by playwright George Bernard Shaw. (His quotes include: "Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being ended sooner.") Shaw argued that Ashes Tests, far from promoting goodwill between England and Australia, actually "induce antagonism and rivalry".
This is probably true, and it would explain why Scots like Australians more than the English do. They don't play cricket against us.
Which leads to an interesting question: do Tri Nations rugby matches make us like New Zealanders and South Africans more or less? One way to find out would be to compare the public's feelings towards them in Sydney and Brisbane against how they are regarded in, say, Adelaide and Hobart, where the All Blacks and Springboks make little impression. It would not be surprising to find that locals in the southern cities feel kinder towards Kiwis and South Africans than they do in the north.
Meanwhile, viewers watching the haka tonight may be interested to know it has caught on in the US, as illustrated by a new American movie about rugby, Forever Strong, to be released internationally in a couple of weeks. The movie features a haka performed by a high school rugby team at the centre of the story. You can see some of the haka in a trailer for the movie at Apple - Movie Trailers - Forever Strong.
Highland High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, has a rugby team long considered all but unbeatable. The story, apparently based on fact, is about a student who ends up playing against the team his father coaches in the national competition.
The Highland team is by no means the only one performing the haka in the US. Even a few gridiron teams put out a version of it, prompting someone to complain on the movie's blog: "Haka is a Maori tradition. In no way should Americans be performing them, and in no way should American football teams be performing them, as they are starting to do. It's just something 'cool' to do in the States, and is totally devoid of history and meaning."
Highland's coach, Larry Gelwix, who is portrayed in the movie, explains on the same blog: "My first rugby coach in college was from New Zealand. He brought that [haka] tradition with him. What people have to understand is that it's not just a cute dance … there is a message associated with the haka."
Expectant Wallabies fans willing to risk further pain - Sport - smh.com.au
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Originally Posted by laura
