Football hooliganism at the rugby?

by Rick Johansen

“There was some football hooliganism at Ashton Gate last Friday,” said someone we might once have been described as a wag. “Football hooliganism at a rugby match!” That’s clear enough then. When there was crowd trouble at the Bristol v Exeter rugby game, it was caused by football fans. No place for that sort of thing at the rugby, eh?

The facts are still emerging about the crowd trouble but one thing is for sure: this was rugby hooliganism. I do know that whilst instances of trouble at rugby matches are far less frequent than those at football, let us not pretend they don’t happen. A friend of mine once witnessed crowd trouble between England and Ireland supporters at Twickenham during the Six Nations which, for some reason, did not get anywhere near the media. Others tell me of fisticuffs they have seen at some club games over many years. How can this be?

Football fans are all tarred with the same brush as being sub-normal thugs whose idea of a fun time on a Saturday is to get blind drunk and then fight people. Rugby fans, as many of them are quick to tell you, are all decent, law-abiding citizens who, after fifteen pints of Boston’s Old Thumper, can be totally trusted to behave impeccably. I’d say half of this is true. Rugby fans are, in the main, decent folk who like a drink, a good time, followed by a rugby match during which they can continue to top up on the alcohol front. In my experience, the vast majority of football fans are exactly the same with their sport, except that, as lesser beings, they are not trusted to have a pint on the terraces in view of the game. Granted, some idiots have given football a bad name which it generally doesn’t deserve.

Perhaps the A word – Alcohol – was responsible for what some rugby supporters described as “awful scenes” at Ashton Gate, in which case the authorities have a dilemma. Do they clamp down on rugby fans, as they do with football fans, because of the actions of a minority? Football fans who fancy a pint during the game are denied the opportunity, so in order to prevent repetition of the fighting at the rugby, maybe they should be treated the same as us?

Alternatively, encourage and permit responsible drinking for everyone. I do not accept the implication backed by a wealth of evidence that rugby fans are somehow regarded as better than football fans. Football may have a few idiots but rugby is not idiot free.

Less snobbery, please. I’m not making a mountain of a molehill. Just making the point that the actions of the few ruin the enjoyment for the many and that seems to apply to other sports, like rugby, as it does to football.

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