Rugby a thug’s game...supported by thugs too, it seems

IT is a matter of no consequence whatsoever to me that Ireland’s rugby team managed to steal a last-minute victory in the opening game of their Six Nations campaign. Win, lose or draw, I couldn’t care less how they end up doing.

My only interest in the matter, as someone who lives within spitting distance of The Stadium Formerly Known As Lansdowne Road, is that the tournament

interferes with my social life. But I am prepared to put up with that on the grounds that: (a) plenty of other people enjoy it, and (b) it’s good for the local economy.

What I find more difficult to tolerate is the thuggery associated with rugby. Worse still is the fact it seems to be accepted as a fact of life by all concerned. Anyone familiar with the main drag in Donnybrook knows it is one of the busiest stretches of road in the capital. At 5.40pm on a typical weekday, it is invariably clogged with cars driven by commuters heading for Dublin’s southside suburbs.

Yet this was still the scene of a full-scale brawl between supporters of the rugby teams from Terenure College and St Michael’s College – two of the country’s most exclusive establishments of learning – last Monday evening. Despite the fact that there is a Garda station directly across the road from where the aggro all kicked off, no arrests were made. One newspaper report noted: ‘Gardaí say they are not investigating.’

Funny, that. I’m not the first person to say this, but I reckon the rozzers’ enquiries would have been rather more thorough if there were punches being thrown by soccer or GAA fans. Going to fee-paying schools probably didn’t do the culprits any harm either. One set of rules for them, another for the rest of us.