Family ties at Super Rugby
Ihave a daughter of 15 and a son of 13 and while they both love playing sport, neither of them spends much time on the couch with dad watching sport, and I blame myself for this.
While other children’s dads indoctrinate them into supporting the likes of Manchester United or the Sharks from an early age, this dad shouts for a different team every week. It has been many years since the heart ruled the head for this sports bettor but the downside is my children have not bonded with any sporting teams.
This past weekend, my daughter went to the Lions v Stormers game with some friends. Her only previous experience of a live rugby game was about six years ago, when she was dragged to the stadium on a family outing.
I was quite excited about this although, deep down, I knew it was more about the social experience than the match itself.
This was confirmed when I sent her a WhatsApp asking who she was cheering for. The answer was “neither” and it broke me to think that she was going to be there indifferent to what was happening in the match.
In a desperate move, I messaged back: “Tell you what, if the Stormers score 24 points or more you can have R100.” I was giving her a cut in my bet to try and get her interested, a desperate move by a desperate dad.
The response was immediate and Angela was now cheering for the Stormers. What followed was unprecedented as I began to get messages from her during the game. The early ones were “it’s not looking good” and then a joke one claiming the money when the Lions reached 24 points.
Just before halftime the Stormers had a try disallowed and my phone beeped, “I can’t believe they had points deducted for that try” and then finally when a badly beaten Stormers team got their 24th point, I got “is that a 24 I see” with a smiley face of course.
I enjoyed this unexpected bonding session with my daughter.
Brent Graham is a sports betting blogger at
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