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By Colin Spiro 24 September 2008
Watching the mass brawl between Toulon and Stade
Francais recently got me thinking about the
importance of the physical aspect in rugby,
especially the French variety.
Some
people decry such behaviour and say it has no place
in the game, but not me, and dare I say it not the
majority of those who either pay to attend or watch
from their armchairs.
As
long as there’s no serious long-term injury it seems
to me that rugby punch-ups are part and parcel of
what is after all a very physical game.
When
I was a kid growing up in England the BBC
commentator Bill McLaren used to describe such
incidents as “a bit of rough and tumble” in his
laconic Scottish drool, and often it’s more a case
of handbags at six yards rather than serious
assault.
Still, I’d far rather watch a couple of sixteen
stone props slugging it out than an overpaid
footballer swallow diving theatrically at the mere
hint of an opponent getting within touching
distance.
Bearing that in mind I thought a quick selection of
some of rugby’s more ‘physical’ moments might make
for entertaining viewing, beginning with that recent
brawl at the Stade Mayol (www.youtube.com).
The
French don’t seem to mind the odd on-field dust-up –
they even have their own phrase for it:
bagarre générale.
The
Toulon fight was sparked by an ongoing niggle
between opposing props David Banquet (Toulon) and
Rodgrio Roncero (Stade), but the real action – and
you’ll have to watch this a couple of times to
really catch it – is dished out by Toulon’s South
African scrum-half Norman Jordaan (number nine).
Why We Love French Rugby -
Part I
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