To be fair, that fact is stated only after ten seconds of the corresponding video have already gone by.
Then again, it’s probably just a bit of trolling the „sportsball“ fans.
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Thanks for providing the correct word! I updated the post.
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I went to a preseason American Football game at the old Wembly Stadium back in '92. The police obviously heard “football” and pulled out all the stops. Very thorough crowd control, especially on the street leading back to the underground stop.
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I always liked the adage that soccer is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans, where as rugby is a hooligans game played by gentleman. So much of rugby culture is brutality on the field and nothing but comradeship off, it’s sad to see this kind of idiocy among the fans (but, of course, that goes to the players, not the fans)
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That was used as an important class-marker in the book The Guardians by John Christopher that went completely over my head when I read it as a kid since I am an American.
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The french logo /mascot is the “coq gaulois”. As such, the French fans used to have a habit of bringing cockerels with them, and turning them loose after games. Quite annoying. Although I expect they’re hard to smuggle into Japan.
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I saw this exact thing back in 2011 on a train in Auckland after their team lost the final to New Zealand. What you’re watching is a “traditional” French post-rugby celebration (whether they win or lose). Their Rugby Sevens team do it on the field and the fans do it on the street or, as here, in trains.
It’s a bit of fun. They’re generally courteous to people around them and just in high spirits. In fact, after being a sports journo for a few years, I can say that French fans tend to be the second best of any I’ve encountered, after the very polite but very bawdy Japanese. (Oddly the Welsh are the worst)
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Rugby clubs at British universities have a somewhat chequered reputation:
From my recollection of uni, if you wanted a quiet drink at the union, you hoped that the rugby players wouldn’t pass through. Nothing quite as bad as the above, but quite a bit of cheery sexism, and they were loud.
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French rugby fans are indeed quite boisterous. I’ve seen them on the London tube many times during euro cup games or the 6 nations, shouting, singing and stamping their feet. Noisy and annoying but utterly harmless.
It really is quite a sight, the normally quiet, reserved,courteuous and polite (pace Paris)to a fault French going utterly bonkers. It’s a little unnerving.
Irish fans are the best. Any sport, anywhere.
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Jesus… I’m meeting my brother there next week. He’s a big fan of that particular brand of sports-ball so he got us tickets to Scotland v Russia. Couldn’t care less tbh, but I love Japan and have been there a couple of times in the decade I’ve lived in Taiwan. Now considering leaving my kilt at home cause I know what kind of reaction supposed fans might receive.
Why, France? Why? You’re supposed to be the good guys! It’s the English fans who are supposed to be the arseholes overseas!
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The Yakuza are never around when you really need them.
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Too much yelling, not enough groping?
Bring yer kilt! Since Japan’s big upset over Ireland on Saturday, the whole country has Rugby fever.
I was at the Australia Wales match on Sunday - it was fantastic. Lots of Welsh folks in kilts. Getting on the train at Shinjuku to head out to the stadium was really amazing. Lining up on the platform and then seeing all the red and yellow jersey’s streaming down the stairs to the same platform. One of the extra guards on duty on the platforms was fist-bumping fans as they came down the stairs. Everyone having a great time. My train car was about 90% rugby jerseys (mainly Wales, Australia, and Japan). The non-rugby regular passengers we smiling and mostly looking up from their phones in amazement at the size of everyone. (me too, I usually feel large here, but was feeling tiny). A bit of welsh singing came up from one end of the car. Then a brief response from the other. Lots of laughing and excitement.
After the very exciting and closely fought game, the Aussies congratulated the Welsh fans, who in turn gave their condolence and then everyone started enthusiastically heading back to the trains.
You will have great time. The Scotland Russia match is happening in Shizuoka, where" the Miracle of Shizuoka" happened last Saturday, (Japan’s Brave Blossoms beating Ireland), so the local energy will be electric. Beautiful part of the country, too.
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After the Americans, French tourist are the worst. But still, Americans …
Turns out this was a nothing burger (nothing don? nothing onigiri?)
Real life Japanese people did not actually give much of a hoot about this.
You know what got far more attention? Despite the worries about stadiums running out of beer and the extra stockpiling, what actually happened was a stadium ran out of food. That event got people talking.
Are you sure they were welsh? If they also had ginger wigs on that’s a kind of blackface. It’s OK because white people, though.
What surprises me most about this is that it runs counter to the many news stories from the Rugby World Cup I’ve read about the surprising good manners demonstrated by both players and fans.
Many teams have adopted the Japanese tradition of bowing to the audience, and a number of fan groups have also adopted the Japanese habit of cleaning up the stadium as they leave. The Japanese fans have also been singing other countries’ anthems as well as their own.
I can take rugby or leave it, and (other than cricket) I’m generally not much of a sports fan. But I whole-heartedly endorse Mr Munroe’s stance on references to “sportsball.”
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It’s definitely still saying “soccer”.
Japan bid to host the tournament (and have failed to win twice in the recent past), the revenue from the gate receipts will be in the £100m bracket, and the tourist income will be high too.
A major sports tournament of that size, especially ones that also carry with them a drinking culture is always going to produce occasions like this. And rugby, at a fan and non-professional level, is riddled with drinking and drinking games always to excess, there will also be any number of tribal games and rites which are completely nonsensical to most, even the players, from the harmless but disruptive to the unhealthy and downright dangerous. Rugby fans like to portray themselves as responsible “good” drinkers, the reality is they are just as convivial or unpleasant as any large group of boozed-up people.
