Keep the faith, but us fans have every right to feel furious

WHEN the final whistle blew on Friday, I was furious. Furious that we had lost. Furious that we had clawed our way back to parity and then thrown it away. Furious that our set-piece was shaky and erratic. Furious that we had again failed to do the simple things well. Furious that we had the lion’s share of our wage packet sitting redundant on the bench for half the game, and furious that despite seeing the last vestiges of a disappointing season finally wither on the vine, someone thought it appropriate to play Sweet Caroline as if a jolly old sing song was all that was needed to wash away the memory of the emotional roller-coaster to which we had been subjected.

Of course, all those moments of fury can easily be explained away with a modicum of rational thought. Sale played with power and aggression on both sides of the law and never gave up. The ref and his team did their best in an emotionally-charged atmosphere with both sets of players putting them under pressure, and, of course, our well-paid superstars may well not have been fit enough to last a full game. Ultimately, in the wider scheme of things, Bristol Rugby is in a far better place than it ever has been.

But herein lies the essence of what it means to be a fan. In the heat of battle, it is the emotional brain that takes over with the sensible, rational, big-picture looking part lagging along behind until time, the healer of everything, brings it back to reality.

It might be the next hour, the next day or even the next week but either way there is no shame in being a furious fan when you have become so invested.

That is the social contract between the club and supporters. They both literally and metaphorically sell us the dream but we have the right to be disappointed when it falls short.

However, there must also be accountability, and while fans should not be taken for fools with flimsy talk about love, losing and learnings they must also dust themselves off and keep the faith when the chips are down. In that way we all move on.

Up the Bears!

Listen to this week’s episode of Bears Beyond the Gate on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify and Buzzsprout.