# 10 Rugby or not rugby

Since two weeks, the world rugby cup started in France. And I'm not looking at all games… as I did a few years ago.

You know, it's that weird cousin of American football where you have to pass the ball back to your team-mates to move forward. It's mostly played in Commonwealth countries, France, Argentina, Italy. But with the advent of the World Cup, it is now being played all over the world. For years I was a rugby fan. I went to the finals of the national championship and the five nations cup (against Scotland... and it's now six nations cup with Italy). But something happened: rugby became a professional sport in 1995 and in the 2000s it changed the way it was played . First of all, it changed the physical appearance of the players with more muscles, even for the backs who score tries. Don't tell me it's just a matter of strength training and nutrition? ...maybe a different kind of nutrition (look at how old the South Africans got when they won their World Cup...). What I loved about rugby was the movement and skill in the backline. I liked the famous "French flair" that could beat the strongest teams. But that's all o
ver now.

Rugby is now more like American football, with shocks, violent impacts ... and deaths from traumatic brain injury. Every year there are deaths or serious injuries. It's not my idea of sport. I didn't play rugby at school for a long time (I don't go to school in the south-west of France)... only because I broke my arm in a game. But I loved it. I was a fan of Stade Toulousain (hello, F6k...), the best team in France with 22 national championships, 5 European Cups (in only 28 years). Many of the current national team players come from Toulouse. But I don't follow the championship anymore, not even the final. It's more cartoonish, more schematic, with distinct phases... more and more like American football, without the breaks for advertising and sponsors :-p. Rugby is going the same way as men's football. But I still watch football games during big events. I just prefer women's games. It's not full of fouls and cheating by the players. And even the shirts are not nice anymore... The famous and noble rugby shirt
is now replaced by a vulgar football shirt, even tighter. The last game that I tried to watch was Japn vs England this year....for 15 minutes. Boring for me.

The price of watching this World Cup, or even national events, has gone up a lot. From €260 for France... and from €60 for less "interesting" games, and more than €100 to watch in fairly good conditions. Like the 2024 Olympics, this sport is not popular, it is for the upper middle class or for sponsors. Rugby had a very different audience from football, without hooligans, with respect for each other. I don't know if it's different now. Well, I don't know if France will finally win their first World Cup... I might watch the final?

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