Tag: Rugby

I’m a rugby convert

What are your favourite sports to watch and play?

There’s just one sport

That I still play.

For most I am too old.

You know that I love running

So we’ll leave that one alone.

Football was my first love

The obsession of my youth.

Law, Best and Charlton

My idols growing up.

I played a bit of rugby

We did a bit at school

But I didn’t have a feel for it

And barely knew the rules.

Our leisure sport was football

Our games would last all day

Memorably in Germany

When we’d won our World Cup.

It was when we moved to Twickenham

I caught the rugby bug.

The home of English rugby

You kind of get caught up.

The crowds that went to Harlequins

Would go right past our door.

One day I followed, took a look

And liked it right away.

There’s less a threatening atmosphere

The rival fans all mix

There’s physicality on the field

But off it there’s respect.

There are no boring 0-0 games

There’s jeopardy to the end

And so much happening on the field

You can watch it all again.

There’s different kinds of players

With different sets of skills

Though I prefer a running game

Ball quickly through the hands.

I still follow football

The universal game

But rugby’s now my favourite sport

And Harlequins my team.

I wished I’d understood it more

Back in the days I played

We just did what they told us to

We didn’t know the rules.

I gave away my favourite hat.

Write about a random act of kindness you’ve done for someone.

Nick Evans drop goal clinches victory for Harlequins over Stade Francais

I really like the whole idea

But puts me on the spot.

There isn’t much that springs to mind.

That hurts me quite a lot.

There may be random things I‘ve done

But didn’t keep the score

More likely I sit on my hands

And should be doing more.

I’ll sometimes talk to strangers

Others have ignored

But that’s because they‘re kindred souls

It have my own reward.

Random acts of charity

But usually online

Impersonal, don’t interact

So is that really kind?

There‘s one small act

That springs to mind

Though really no big thing.

A minor and impulsive act

But nominally kind?

It happened at a rugby match

A really famous one.

We really thought that we had lost

But memorably we‘d won.

The clock already in the red

And no time for mistakes.

One error and the game would end

So no room for mistakes.

We went at their line again, again

But didn’t lose the ball

Could Harlequins beat Stade Francais?

It seemed a hopeless cause.

Improbably a drop goal

Headed for the posts

Amazingly a victory

A game we thought we’d lost.

The place was in an uproar

Ecstatic English fans

Dejected looking French men

Including one young man.

We were so so happy

And they were all so sad

I gave my favourite hat away

To that unhappy lad.

I often wonder if a souvenir

Of a match that they had lost

Was really consolation

But what does kindness cost?

At least the young lad‘s father

Seemed touched by what I’d done.

I sometimes miss my favourite hat

But memorably we won!