After watching the Bluebirds trounce league leaders Norwich City at Ninian
Park, life-long City fan and messageboard regular Richard Williams (aka
Claude Blue) made a rare trip to Cardiff Arms Park to watch the rugby! Below
are his thoughts on the game, which for the record was an uneventful 6-0
away win to Llanelli. Please note, the views of Claude Blue are not
necessarily those of the editor!
My views are
probably tarnished by being soaked on three occasions prior to the game, and
the fact that the match itself was a poor advert for rugby union.
However, one fact is very clear. The crowds at the respective games are so
very different - and I don't just mean the size! The atmosphere at Ninian
Park was much better than of late, with a number of different ditties sung
as well as the old favourites. Meanwhile, over at the Arms Park the
atmosphere was, well, sort of, dead!! Only one chant from the home
supporters - the very imaginative "Cardiff!", whilst our friends from out
west were slightly more vocal, although equally unimaginative. Cries of
"Scarlets!", "I'm Scarlet 'till I die", "there's only one Gareth Jenkins",
and the predictable "Sospan Fach" were the sum total of their offerings.
On the plus side one has to say how much less partisan the crowds behaviour
is at a rugby union match. Great to see fans mixed in together (both during
the game and in the pubs after) and absolutely no hint of trouble
whatsoever. It so much increases my hatred towards football hooligans and
their apologists, but I digress.
As for the game, well it's just not my cup of tea I'm afraid. Too stop/start
for my liking and the primary tactic seemed to be to hoof the ball as far
upfield as possible. The old adage that the crowd at a rugby union game sees
more of the ball than the players sadly held true yesterday evening. On the
plus side was the sheer ferocity of the tackling and defensive play - some
of the tackling, seen at such close quaters, is frightening! These guys are
huge, and you probably wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of them!
The final disappointment for me was the amount of punches thrown by the
players and the "handbag" incidents. Now I know that it's part of the game
but, to me, it has no place in a team sport. If you want to throw punches,
learn to box! If you throw a punch then you should be off - not just
sin-binned for 10 minutes.
All-in-all then a worthwhile experience, one which I may repeat in the
future. That's strange I hear you say after being so critical? Maybe, but
the ultimate reason would be the lack of hostility on the terraces and in
the stands - football needs to look at rugby union and learn lessons in
crowd behaviour. |
