For many a year, I have bitten my tongue at the deplorable antics of those idiots in that other code as they have tried their best, and usually succeeded, to bring the word rugby into disrepute not to mention me having to question whether Darwin had in fact got his theory of evolution.
Sex scandals, violence, drugs, gross indecency, rape, drunkenness, public nuisance, financial impropriety, community abuse through pokies, the list goes on. All of the offences usually met with just a token para or two in that shit rag called the Tele, a load of buffoonery on that abysmal TV show and everything goes on as normal.
But the episodes of the last two weeks have brought me to the end of my tether. Firstly, a star pinup boy of the 'sport' repeatedly swears at a referee in full view of the cameras with all his words clearly picked up by the audio. For some strange reason, the ref decides not to take any action on the pitch but quite rightly the player is hauled up before the judiciary who then decide to take no action. Given the player's very high profile status, there are no doubt hundreds, if not thousands, of poor misguided kids who will have posters of this plank pinned up on their bedroom wall who now think it is perfectly OK to abuse and swear at a referee or, by extension, any other authoritative figure in their life. Fine example set there.
And then in the past week, another pinup boy of the code stoops to the despicable act of headbutting another player. For this heinous crime, he doesnt get sent off but is placed on report and then brought before the judiciary. The wise old souls on the panel decide that because he didnt tilt his head right back before administering the blow, it wasnt really a headbutt and therefore doesnt deserve any punishment. Meanwhile, another player, not quite such a superstar pinup boy, correctly gets brought before the judiciary for a dangerous tackle and gets a week off for his troubles. This clearly sets the tone that it is OK to fight, give faux headbutts etc on the pitch but dont go too hard in the tackles. And again, no doubt some stupid impressionable kids will have seen there hero been told there is nothing wrong with issuing the odd headbutt or two and will take that into practise in the classrooms.
All up, the actions of that sport, all it stands for and the problems it cause makes me sick to the pit of my stomach.
Oh yeah, and the game really sucks too.
There, got that off my chest.
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