Slipperduke
The Camden Cad
Ah, Uxbridge is going to love this.
I've recently signed a four-book deal with the publishers of Football Fables to produce wry, but informative, guides to the four major sports. It's not quite as glamourous as it sounds. At 30,000 words, the books are rough-guides rather than ground-breaking novels and it's definitely not going to finance that big house in the country.
The first, a football book, has been clattered out in the last month and is almost finished. It's the second that worries me. Yep, it's Rugby Union.
Now, I used to play rugby at school but, until recently, no-one hated the sport as much as me. "Any sport that involves a ball shaped like an egg," I always said, "can only ever be inherently random." Oh, Dame Fate, how cruel your sense of irony.
So, in the last two months I've been Sky+ing and watching every rugby match I can get my hands on and devouring books on the subject. I now know my loosehead from my tighthead and the gulf in class between England and Ireland has finally taught me what a second phase is.
The only thing that I can't get from book-learning is the feeling of watching rugby, what it means to be a fan, the difference between international and club rugby, the differences between football fans and rugby fans. The things you love about it, the things you hate about it. The pitfalls, the heroes, the legends, the villains.
So, if you're a rugby fan, would you be so kind as to tell me why? What is it about the sport that grabbed you? How does it compare to football?
Lastly, irony of ironies, my immersive research into egg-chasing has produced a devasting end-result. I've found myself actually quite enjoying the sport.
Damnit.
I've recently signed a four-book deal with the publishers of Football Fables to produce wry, but informative, guides to the four major sports. It's not quite as glamourous as it sounds. At 30,000 words, the books are rough-guides rather than ground-breaking novels and it's definitely not going to finance that big house in the country.
The first, a football book, has been clattered out in the last month and is almost finished. It's the second that worries me. Yep, it's Rugby Union.
Now, I used to play rugby at school but, until recently, no-one hated the sport as much as me. "Any sport that involves a ball shaped like an egg," I always said, "can only ever be inherently random." Oh, Dame Fate, how cruel your sense of irony.
So, in the last two months I've been Sky+ing and watching every rugby match I can get my hands on and devouring books on the subject. I now know my loosehead from my tighthead and the gulf in class between England and Ireland has finally taught me what a second phase is.
The only thing that I can't get from book-learning is the feeling of watching rugby, what it means to be a fan, the difference between international and club rugby, the differences between football fans and rugby fans. The things you love about it, the things you hate about it. The pitfalls, the heroes, the legends, the villains.
So, if you're a rugby fan, would you be so kind as to tell me why? What is it about the sport that grabbed you? How does it compare to football?
Lastly, irony of ironies, my immersive research into egg-chasing has produced a devasting end-result. I've found myself actually quite enjoying the sport.
Damnit.