Rugby culture
Leeds Rhinos playing at the 2008 boxing day friendly against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats at Headingley Stadium
Because of its long adherence to amateurism, an ethic considered to have discouraged working class players, rugby union often has a reputation as a middle-class and upper-class game. Exceptions to this occur in New Zealand, Wales, the Borders region of Scotland, County Limerick in Ireland, the county of Cornwall in England, and the Pacific Islands, where rugby union remained popular in working class communities. Rugby league retains great popularity among working-class people in the English counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.
In the United Kingdom, rugby union fans sometimes use the term “rugger” as an alternative name for the sport. Those considered to be heavily involved with the rugby union lifestyle — including heavy drinking and striped jumpers — sometimes identify as “rugger buggers”. Retired rugby union players who still turn up to watch, drink and serve on committees rank as “alickadoos” or, less kindly, as “old farts”.
Rugby league supporters sometimes call themselves “treizistes”, reflecting the French title of their sport (rugby à treize). The epithet occurs almost universally in France, but its use has also spread to English-speaking countries.
Australians fall into three camps when it comes to naming the two codes of rugby: in New South Wales and Queensland, which represent over half the population, people usually refer to rugby union simply as “union” and to rugby league simply as “rugby league” or “football”. (The same perceived class barrier as exists between the two games in England also occurs in these two states, fostered by rugby union’s prominence and support at elite private schools). However, in the southern states, such as Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, “football” means Australian Rules Football, and there is no popular differentiation between the two kinds of “rugby”. Areas in which all three codes are popular, especially the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, and the Riverina, generally use the names “league”, “union” and “Aussie rules” to avoid confusion.
In Australia a popular show called “The Footy Show” screens weekly during the NRL season.
New Zealanders generally refer to rugby union simply as either “football” or “rugby” and to rugby league as “rugby league”, “football” or “league”. In New Zealand, playing football has a reputation as the epitome of manliness for both Māori and Pākehā (non-Māori), as symbolised by a haka (war dance) at the start of important games. Kiwis see rugby as the accepted substitute for military heroism and an excellent training ground for soldiering. If (as the Duke of Wellington allegedly said) Britain won the Battle of Waterloo on the playing-fields of Eton, New Zealand long saw its role in the British Empire as intimately connected with the football field. Popular Kiwi mythology sees the encouragement of New Zealand rugby in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the Imperial reaction to declining fitness in Britain’s industrial slums. In the county of Cornwall in England, it is still the norm for boys to play rugby (union) not ‘soccer’ and when the team occasionally gets to Twickenham for the Counties final it will be filled with supporters wearing the black and gold of the Cornish colours.
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