FIRST STREAKER RUN AT TWICKENHAM In April 1974, Australian Michael O’Brien became the first stre- aker at a major sporting event when he ran across the pitch na- ked as England played France at Twickenham rugby stadium. As he was escorted from the pitch, a policeman famously cove- red O’Brien’s ‘assets’ with his helmet.
won on the rugby pitches of England. - Rugby football traditionally served as a kind of intense form of battlefield training for future military officers. That’s because it is a sport that demands players maintain order, discipline, form and structure, while being subjected to intense physical pressure and the threat of injury, just like on a battlefield, and, to para- phrase Rudyard Kipling’s great poem,“if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs … then you’ll be a man, my son”- says Mark somewhat romantically, and again unusually for our expectations of how a rugby player should talk. That’s all because we know so little about this sport. Because fans in the stands at Twickenham, but fans of all codes of rugby in general, are not just non-aggressive guys, rather, on the contrary, they together form a veritable small army of like-minded people. - There is no shortage of aggression on the rugby pitch, so perhaps that’s why there’s no additional aggression on the ter- races. As someone who is pro-rugby, I can only suggest that foot- ball is a frustrating sport to watch, while there is great camara- derie and solidarity among supporters of rugby, who tend to be players or former players themselves, and who automatically of- fer respect to anyone who is prepared to take to the battlefield and put their body on the line – explains Pullen. These days Twickenham offers much more than just top flight sport and has become a destination for fans from around the world to experience the excitement of match day, sample the history with a stadium tour, visit the superb World Rugby Muse- um, take a trip to the Rugby Store, host an event or watch some of the biggest names in music perform. When the sportsmen take time off, the stadium opens its doors to some of the finest musi- cal talents around. The likes of U2, R.E.M, Bon Jovi and The Roll- ing Stones have all performed at Twickenham over recent years. But when there is a match playing, there is a sporting atmos- phere, where the most ardent of rugby fans sit happily along- side families and children. Banter is often exchanged between rival fans, but this merely adds to the inspiring atmosphere. The fans of opposing teams go for a beer together after the game, because, as they say, rugby is something more than sport and represents a belonging to a particular way of life... - In a country that is dominated by association football, peo- ple who love rugby form a kind of brotherhood, and the fact that they are rugby lovers outweighs any club rivalry. Moreover, be- cause the rugby pitch is essentially a battlefield, it is tradition- al for the rivals to end the game by embracing and then after- wards drinking beer together, to ensure there is no bad feeling between the two teams, but also as an expression of mutual re- spect among the players – says Mark, who has lived in Serbia for a long time and who coaches and plays alongside our lov- ers of rugby league. He says that rugby is a spectacle that offers action on the field over a period of a full 80 minutes, and that this sport cre- ates a complete athlete, because it requires not only skill, talent and teamwork, but also strength, speed, discipline and, perhaps most importantly of all, courage!
Fudbal je sport za gospodu koji igraju huligani, a ragbi je sport za huligane koji igra gospoda. Tako bar kažu britanski ragbi fanovi
Football is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans, while rugby is a hooligans’ game played by gentlemen - At least that’s what British lovers of rugby claim
Najjači tim: Srpska ragbi reprezentacija The strongest team: Serbia’s national rugby league squad
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