Rugby vs Cartoons
Rugby. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching the occasional game now I am a grown up, but when I was little I bloody hated it. Whenever my dad was at home it seemed like the rugby was on. I’d tear home from school, lunchbox swinging in the breeze, eager to watch Daffy Duck call someone ‘despicable’ but when I got to the living room the result would usually be the same - my dad levitating above the sofa screaming ‘GO ON MY SON’ at the telly while a man ran on some mud with the weirdest-shaped ball I’d ever seen. I just didn’t get the fascination so would do the usual kid thing and hang around whining ‘daaaaaad, can I watch cartooooooooons pleaseeee’… ‘how long does this go on for’… ‘can I have chips for tea tonight, daaaaaad’. That poor man, I feel quite bad about it now but I was a kid and it was my job to complain – surely!?

Anyhoo, one particular day I started up my moaning and my dad did something different. Instead of turning up the tv or clamping his hands to his ears to block out my howls, he put the tv on mute and asked me to come and sit with him on the sofa. He gave me a hug, took the tv off mute and proceeded to point out players on the screen. He sat with me and explained the entirety of the sport; who each player was, their position, what their job was etc. I sat with him for the whole game, to me it seemed like it went on for hours, but for the first time they were enjoyable hours. My dads always been a man of few words so to hear him talk at length about anything was pretty gosh darn impressive to me so I sat and listened intently.

After the game he told me that he would be playing rugby in a week or so and asked if I wanted to come and see him. I was actually excited at the concept of watching my dad be the man with the ball so I agreed and my mother took me, my older sister and my younger brother to watch my dad play rugby for the RAF vs NAVY match. I don’t remember much of what happened that day, other than it being bloody cold on the sidelines in the rain but every time my dad ran past me I cheered with all the might I could muster so he knew that I cared.

It’s a shame I didn’t retain all the information he taught me on that day, but I like to think a little bit of it hung around as now I can happily watch a game without feeling like I’m missing out on cartoons!
(Flim-Flam the Magnificent "You is talking loco and I like it!", Thu 15 Oct 2009, 16:52, 10 replies)

I fucking hate rugby

( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 15 Oct 2009, 16:56, closed)

Hehe
Well maybe rugby fucking hates you too! :)
(Flim-Flam the Magnificent "You is talking loco and I like it!", Thu 15 Oct 2009, 17:01, closed)

Clicked
Arrgghhh, The fluffyness! The fluffyness of it all!
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Thu 15 Oct 2009, 17:03, closed)

Aww
You love it!! Every now and then I'll post some fluff, most of the time my thoughts are on Lego and Cake.

And thanks a bundle!
(Flim-Flam the Magnificent "You is talking loco and I like it!", Thu 15 Oct 2009, 17:05, closed)

Clicked
I'm touched
(Scary Ghost, Thu 15 Oct 2009, 17:20, closed)

Thank you muchly
for the clickage!
(Flim-Flam the Magnificent "You is talking loco and I like it!", Thu 15 Oct 2009, 17:27, closed)

I like this
Your dad is cool.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Thu 15 Oct 2009, 17:21, closed)

Daddy, Daddy Cool
Daddy, Daddy Coooool!

I shall tell him! :)
(Flim-Flam the Magnificent "You is talking loco and I like it!", Thu 15 Oct 2009, 17:27, closed)

What year was it?
Out of interest.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Thu 15 Oct 2009, 17:59, closed)

Nice tale, thanks. 'click'
I retired this year after having played for 20-odd years (not continuously, you understand). I was just unlucky and got a pretty nasty neck injury, that and my knee-cap doesn't want to stay where it should any more. I cried like a big-fucking-jessie in the doctors office when she told me one more knock and I could be permanently disabled; partly because the pain was almost unbearably incessant, partly because of the thought of not being able to play any more, but more frightened-to-death that I wouldn't be able to pick up and hold my kids. Definitely made the right decision, and no regrets.

Except, my wife never got to see me play; she was always too worried about me getting injured. If I'd known I was going to retire, she would have come to see me.

Biggest disappointment about the whole thing is my kids will never see me play, and they'll never know how shit I was.....
(Tighthead, Thu 15 Oct 2009, 21:53, closed)