IT'S not for nothing that soccer is spoken of as 'the beautiful game.' There's no doubt that when Barca or Arsenal or Real are on top of their game it reaches the level of art with the likes of Messi and Drogba taking the roles of Van Gogh or Matisse with the pitch as their canvas and the ball their paintbrush.Rugby may have been called many things down the years, but 'the beautiful game' definitely is not one of them.It's ironic that football with all its sublime skills, precision and elegance has become the game of the masses, who often dishonour the beauty of the action on the pitch with loutish behaviour in the terraces, while rugby, which can sometimes resemble a 30 man tag wrestling match in the mud, holds such appeal with what would historically be described as the upper-classes. The difference between the two games has famously been described thus, 'Football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans while rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen.'This stark contrast in the demographic profiles of the two biggest ball sports on the planet stems from their origins. The first recorded form of football was a military training exercise called Tsu' Chu that dates back to the Chinese Han dynasty between the third and second centuries BC. Rubgy meanwhile was invented when William Webb-Ellis, a scholar at Rugby school in England, picked up the ball during a soccer match and ran with it. The game soon spread to other English public schools and then school leavers took the game with them to universities such as Oxford and Cambridge and from there the game spread.From Edward John Lewis, who represented Wales against England in 1881 and who graduated from St Bartholomew's Hospital, to Jamie Roberts who plays for Wales today, a startling list of rugby stars have also been doctors. In the South African Springbok team today the hard man of the front row is tight head prop Dr Jannie Du Plessis. One can think also of Doctor Danie Craven who lead South Africa magnificently both on the pitch as the scum half who invented the dive-pass and later as President of the South African Rugby Board, to perhaps the world's best ever fullback, JPR Williams.JPR, who represented Wales 55 times, also represented the British and Irish Lions in victorious campaigns against New Zealand and South Africa. A scholar and a gentleman off the pitch he had a reputation as a tiger on it. Having specialised as an orthopaedic surgeon he once said of his dual career: 'I used to say that I spent half my life breaking bones on the rugby field then the other half putting them back together in the operating theatre.'Next week Cambridge engineering masters graduate, David Akinluyi, will lead Nigeria in three games at the Africa Cup in Botswana. Akinluyi's younger brother Didi, who is also a Cambridge graduate, will be playing alongside him.Rugby's history, as a sport of the intelligentsia, has ensured the game has able and talented administrators. The challenge now though is to drive the game down to a broader mass audience. To get young people who do not come from a privileged background playing the game.The game makes enormous demands on players; physical fitness and courage, mental fortitude, discipline, respect for the laws and the opposition and a selfless commitment to the team. The rewards for those who imbibe the spirit of the game are incalculable too. Rugby players today come from all walks of life; they share a common bond and camaraderie that cuts across all languages, religions and cultures.Akinluyi, who plays his club rugby in England, has coined the slogan 'one team, one dream' to unite his courageous young men from home and abroad whom he will lead into battle on the fields of Botswana next week. May they leave as men and return as gentlemen.SCRUM HALF AND FLY HALFThe halfbacks, as these two positions are collectively called, provide the link between the pack of forwards and the backs and are the generals whose responsibility it is to dictate strategy and control the game plan on the field.The Scrum Half wears the number 9 jersey and is often the smallest player on the pitch. He feeds the ball into the scrum and clears it to the backs. Playing so close to the giants in the forwards they have to be nuggety and fearless.The Fly Half wears the number 10 jersey and has to be able to run, pass and kick with both feet. It is his key responsibility to dictate the flow of the game, deciding when to kick for territory or when to run or pass on attack.08033843683archtheadman@gmail.com
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