White Rabbits Brave Blossoms

 

What have blossoms bravely blooming in the Japanese spring got to do with rugby you may ask? Well, the Japanese ruggards team is called the Brave Blossoms. It seems an unusual juxtaposition, but gets your attention. And maybe sympathy. WHITE RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT!

Rugby then and rugby now

 Rugby junkies reminisce on the way things were…

.

Wilson: Roy played on the wing.  Trialed for the All Blacks in 1939 but the war intervened. Could have gone to South Africa.

.

Colin: A runner?

.

Wilson: He was light. Fast. Ran like the wind. Different kind of rugby back then though.

.

     laughing,
    running
    and ducking

Colin: Don Clark was a hero of mine in the 1950s. Listening to the All Blacks beat the British Lions ear pressed to the radio in 1959. Maybe his style of rugby was pivotal. End of an era.

.

Wilson: In what way?

.

Colin: It’s back then versus today. Running versus rucks. Deftness versus drugs.

.

Colin: Funny you mention South Africa. That’s where Don Clark ended up. Archetypal New Zealand farm boy ends up there. On the other side. Bit ironical, that.

__________

Voice-over

Tackle, ruck, maul – is that a sum-up of rugby today? A game that morphed from a laughing, running and ducking game (LR&D) into a tournament of sweat, blood and tears, example, Jonah, first jumbo winger leading to a legacy of lookalikes? But it always was a contact sport. Survival of the fittest.
...