Old rugby

New York Red · March 3, 2013

There was a program on last night showing old Rugby Union games. Classics I suppose. They showed the British Lions vs New Zealand from 1966.

I can remember watching rugby live as far back as 1971 but I couldn't remember it being as bad as this. The line outs were an absolute joke. Just chucking it in to a big cluster of blokes, plus there seemed to be one every minute. The scrums were incredible. No binding, no set, just a sloppy mess with a very aggressive hook. It reminded me more of a League scrum. The biggest surprise for me was in the rucks and mauls. Everybody was offside and it seemed like the ref couldn't care less. It was absolute mayhem.

Obviously the size and fitness of the players was vastly different (Dai Watkins looked like he was about 5'5"), but even the legends of the game like Mike Gibson and Willie-John McBride looked absolutely rubbish.

It really is a different game now. It's no wonder everyone went North. You'd be crazy not to.

Nebraska Red · March 3, 2013