The Rugby Rave
March 3rd 2010 22:58
My fellow rugby fans
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
Seeing as both codes of rugby seduce a large weekly following right across the world, I thought I should offload a greeting which caters to all timezones.
I tried to adopt the Fox News mantra of being "fair and balanced."
Some of you may think I'm a little UNBALANCED for subscribing to that philosophy. But we'll leave personal politics for another discussion in the next life.
Up until recently I hosted a community radio show called the "Sunday Sports Desk."
Sadly I've been a been a bit crook and had to cancel that program indefinately. I thought, 'What now, Josh?'.
My answer?
Go back to doing what I loved doing while I was away from broadcasting.
Writing opinion pieces. It doesn't involve the ordeal of sitting through traffic while trying to get to an interview on time yet it retains my love of being creative in the first person.
One of the rules of opinion piece writing is to stick to topics within your area of expertise or background.
I have covered rugby league in the form of feature articles and match reports for the last 7 years for Rugby League Review as well as my former website GlobalRugbyLeague.com
Rugby Union coverage is a new challenge for me.
I played the game at school with the Trinity Grammar 14'Fs back in 1994. However we only secured one victory that season against Newington. It was a hard earned forfeit.
The rucks. They were my biggest challenge...mentally more than physically.
Getting your hands stamped on by gutbuster candidates wearing a no 6,7 or 8 jumper in the ruck...didn't really appeal to me. So I just did what I knew best and played the ball between my legs to the acting dummy-half.
Unfortunately I discovered there was no acting dummy-half waiting behind me to take the ball and go wide.
The referee penalised me and told me in a Steve Erkel tone of voice: "If you wanna do that kind of funny stuff, go play rugby league."
To this i replied: "Do you think I'd be playing this shithouse game if we really lived in a democracy? I'm only here because rugby union is the equivalent of national service at my private school."
Through the years I have come to discover that Rugby Union is a necessary evil.
It helps me survive rugby league's annual depression otherwise known as the off-season.
You'll find that each week I'll take the mickey out of both codes while also extending a hand of congratulations when they run their respective games the right way.
We've seen plenty of rugby league players make the jump to the 15-a-side code.Yet off the field most of our favourite sportswriters have stuck to their area of expertise.
Wise thinking. But I am not a very wise person and have decided to ruck the trend and take a risk for the first time in a long time in my life.
So here we are today.
A new beginning or the beginning of my end. Either way it should be a ruckin good time.
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
Seeing as both codes of rugby seduce a large weekly following right across the world, I thought I should offload a greeting which caters to all timezones.
I tried to adopt the Fox News mantra of being "fair and balanced."
Some of you may think I'm a little UNBALANCED for subscribing to that philosophy. But we'll leave personal politics for another discussion in the next life.
Up until recently I hosted a community radio show called the "Sunday Sports Desk."
Sadly I've been a been a bit crook and had to cancel that program indefinately. I thought, 'What now, Josh?'.
My answer?
Go back to doing what I loved doing while I was away from broadcasting.
Writing opinion pieces. It doesn't involve the ordeal of sitting through traffic while trying to get to an interview on time yet it retains my love of being creative in the first person.
One of the rules of opinion piece writing is to stick to topics within your area of expertise or background.
I have covered rugby league in the form of feature articles and match reports for the last 7 years for Rugby League Review as well as my former website GlobalRugbyLeague.com
Rugby Union coverage is a new challenge for me.
I played the game at school with the Trinity Grammar 14'Fs back in 1994. However we only secured one victory that season against Newington. It was a hard earned forfeit.
The rucks. They were my biggest challenge...mentally more than physically.
Getting your hands stamped on by gutbuster candidates wearing a no 6,7 or 8 jumper in the ruck...didn't really appeal to me. So I just did what I knew best and played the ball between my legs to the acting dummy-half.
Unfortunately I discovered there was no acting dummy-half waiting behind me to take the ball and go wide.
The referee penalised me and told me in a Steve Erkel tone of voice: "If you wanna do that kind of funny stuff, go play rugby league."
To this i replied: "Do you think I'd be playing this shithouse game if we really lived in a democracy? I'm only here because rugby union is the equivalent of national service at my private school."
Through the years I have come to discover that Rugby Union is a necessary evil.
It helps me survive rugby league's annual depression otherwise known as the off-season.
You'll find that each week I'll take the mickey out of both codes while also extending a hand of congratulations when they run their respective games the right way.
We've seen plenty of rugby league players make the jump to the 15-a-side code.Yet off the field most of our favourite sportswriters have stuck to their area of expertise.
Wise thinking. But I am not a very wise person and have decided to ruck the trend and take a risk for the first time in a long time in my life.
So here we are today.
A new beginning or the beginning of my end. Either way it should be a ruckin good time.
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