Is English Rugby Union an elitist sport?

Lemmy_kilmister

Well-known member
Is it really a middle /upper class game?

When I was at school in the late 70s/early 80s, only the kids from Acklam and Brookfield seemed to get to play for Stainsby... You rarely if ever saw any kids from Whinney Banks or West Lane get picked.

Then after joining the Forces, I discovered Rugby is always the premier sport. Very much an officer (who is often ex uni student) driven concern. (Except over the last few years, the Army team has become 80% Fijian) now).
Army/Navy at Twickenham is immense... 80 odd thousand attend every May for what always turns into a giant pișș up.
Forces football is never given the same level of attention. You'd guarantee the Old Man was first on the bus to the rugby match, but never went to watch his units football match.

Maybe it's just me coming from a pretty much non-Rugby town, but it's not a working class (if that term still exists) game IMO.
 
I agree, sport of the public schools.

I think any working class kid can break in if they are good enough but generally it’s a money game in my opinion.
 
As a Stainsby pupil from around the same time from Acklam I can honestly say Billy Cotton never asked me to be a member of the rugby team.

Mind you I was six stone wringing wet in my early teens.
 
It depends where you are in the country.

It is true Rugby Union is played in public schools and as a lot of Military officers are from this background it is natural for them to support Rugby over football. Also as rugby is more physically combative than football, it is a better showcase for them, in the same way that boxing is promoted.
I went to school in the midlands and rugby was always promoted in the winter months and I know many kids went for trials at local clubs. In the north where rugby league was a bigger supported sport you possible didnt have such a focus as it was professional and not amateur.
Currently the biggest clubs in the Premiership are from affluent cities, either connected to London, Midlands : Northampton and Leicester or the South West ; Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester and Exeter. Often these cities have universities connected with the towns and also dont always have successful football teams especially if they are smaller towns.
 
Varies by geography across the UK. I have friends in the Scottish Borders and union is the main sport in their town for all social classes. It never seemed a posh sport to me, growing up in Billingham, where there were always boys from school playing at the weekend, but I can only recall one attempt at the sport in PE. I met people at university from the North West and rugby league was life for them. Union was a foreign country.

Quite a solid setup for union in the part of Tyneside where I live. I have no interest in the sport but there are local facilities if my kids were interested in playing. I think that horse riding is the only think I would still consider posh, due to the cost!
 
Yes it is in my opinion, although depends on geography and which school (including state schools) you went to. I went to state comp and we maybe played rugby in PE on a couple of occasions at which point we would down tools and demand to play football. PE teacher would always give in and we had a brilliant school football team.

I've got a good mate from Widnes (working class to his roots and political with it) and rugby league is his world but he does not care for union because "it's for toffs".
 
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Played at Grangefield Grammar in the late 60s and loved it. Went to college in Surrey and played against all these snooty clubs, which led to a serious dislike of that arrogance that was redolent of Home Counties/England Rugby at the time. Such that I still can not bring myself to support England. The attitude to the game in Wales and NZ I find much more to my taste. Did play a season for a SE London club which was more enjoyable.
 
I went to possibly the scruffiest school in Redcar and we played rugby in PE all the time.
Plenty of my mates were also in the local rugby team, as was I before they all hit puberty a lot earlier than me and I couldn't take the tackles 😂.
 
I sneaked in to a grammar school just as they were being abolished and we played union. We were rubbish, sports results from the weekend were read out in assembly on a Monday morning and we were almost always humiliated.

I think at the time it was elitist but not these days
 
I was at Acklam Grange 92-97 and we had an ok rugby team, took Yarm School to extra time in a cup final.

The team was made up of 1 outstanding rugby player, the football team drafted in (I was one of them, tiny and skinny but quick) and a few of the fat lads to play as forwards.

Rugby, for me, is an awful sport. Crap to watch, boring to play and rugby players tend to be utter pricks as well.
 
Started playing at the age of 6 in school rugby in the Welsh valleys. It's the sport the the best athletes get groomed into. Important for a country with a small population.

From 15 to 18 there was a divergance of rugby experience. Wales youth (rugby club based) were a very different kettle of fish to Wales secondary schools (grammar schools). But at 18 they'd blend back together in club rugby. It was a game for people from all backgrounds and abilities with Sunday pub games and village rugby the alternative to the 20 top club sides in Wales.

The biggest difference I found coming to play in England was the clubs would have a first to, sometimes, a fifth team. Every one played for the first team in Wales, although some first teams were better than others!!!
 
I certainly think Wales /NZ outlook on it is very different to English, Scottish, Irish and even Oz outlook where it's viewed more as a public school game.
 
As a sport no. Here in NZ all schools play it. It’s the structure in England and Scotland (not Wales or Ireland) that makes it be perceived that way.
Same here in Oz mate, all the schools play the game so it's not so much of a game for toffs though league is much more popular.

A little off topic but one thing that really stood out for me when arriving in Oz was the fact that you could go to any pub and be drinking
with guys wearing T shirts thongs and shorts only to find out that they were doctors, barristers or other professionals.

It's not a game to my taste though although I always enjoyed games involving the All Blacks.
Too much hoofing the ball into touch which leads to another scrum which leads to a collapsed scrum and on and on and on until
one team wins a penalty which once again the ball is hoofed into touch and around we go again with a lineout which also seems
to take forever.

I know, I'm thick and just don't get it. :) Agreed

UTB
 
Same here in Oz mate, all the schools play the game so it's not so much of a game for toffs though league is much more popular.

A little off topic but one thing that really stood out for me when arriving in Oz was the fact that you could go to any pub and be drinking
with guys wearing T shirts thongs and shorts only to find out that they were doctors, barristers or other professionals.

It's not a game to my taste though although I always enjoyed games involving the All Blacks.
Too much hoofing the ball into touch which leads to another scrum which leads to a collapsed scrum and on and on and on until
one team wins a penalty which once again the ball is hoofed into touch and around we go again with a lineout which also seems
to take forever.

I know, I'm thick and just don't get it. :) Agreed

UTB
Watched the super rugby game last night on tv between Hurricanes (wellington) and the Blues (Auckland). First game of the new season but they came out of the gate flying. Great handling, some tremendous tries and a handful of line outs due to the willingness to run the ball confidently and not keep kicking for position.
 
I was at Acklam Grange 92-97 and we had an ok rugby team, took Yarm School to extra time in a cup final.

The team was made up of 1 outstanding rugby player, the football team drafted in (I was one of them, tiny and skinny but quick) and a few of the fat lads to play as forwards.

Rugby, for me, is an awful sport. Crap to watch, boring to play and rugby players tend to be utter pricks as well.
Slightly subjective view.
 
It doesn't have to be and I wish it wasn't perceived that way.
Used to be played by various schools in the area and personally I wish it still was.
I think it has the potential to offer more to a wider range of players than football.
 
It doesn't have to be and I wish it wasn't perceived that way.
Used to be played by various schools in the area and personally I wish it still was.
I think it has the potential to offer more to a wider range of players than football.
It certainly does. I like both of course but Rugby both codes, should be played in all schools in England as well as football. Probably need more coaches at schools level but the schools programmes are working to that.
 
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