A Swede in the UK

All this cricket madness made me think. When I arrived in the UK a decade and a bit ago, I'd never even heard of it. Nor, come to think of it, had I heard of Rugby. Well, I knew that the sport of Rugby existed, but as I got established in Cardiff, the epi-centre of Welsh Rugby, I started to realise that Rugby is huge, both in Wales, England, Ireland, Scotland and large parts of the commonwealth, France and S.A. Not only that, but there are even two different kinds of Rugby, I learnt: Rugby League and Rugby Union, with slightly varying rules. Rugby Union, I was told, is 'proper' Rugby, and Rugby League is a game that only girlies up north play. However, should I ever find myself 'up north' I might want to keep this view to myself, or risk facial feature rearrangement.

To the uninitiated, Rugby must seem even more byzantine than cricket. Fifteen players (Union) on each side. Spectacular physicality (or even brutality), and extremely complex rules. Living with a northern Rugby nut, I've come to love the game. The off-side rule makes sense. Not only is it exciting to watch, but the players all just stand up, dust themselves off and get on with it after receiving hits that would have a footy player crying for mummy. Further, the game is blissfully unblighted by the ugliness frequently seen on football terraces -- all violence is on the pitch, rather than off it, so to speak. If you're under the misapprehension that American Football is a hard game, you should see an international Rugby game.

Go Bristol!

I've since then discovered that both Rugby and indeed Cricket is actually played in Sweden. Not so long ago, the Swedish national rugger squad lost out to that Rugby power nation, Poland.