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Phil E said:
The only way to enforce it would be to stop the match and not continue until the singing stops...then repeat. It could seriously backfire if the game is on TV as it could become a standoff of who blinks first. Would the RFU or World Rugby risk that?
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Of course not.

And that introduces the possibility of eg Eng v TeamA. TeamA is winning 45-3 with 45 minutes to go. England fans start singing the song and don't stop.

Or if you like England are winning 45-3 with 45 minutes to go and teamA fans start singing it and dont stop.

abandon the game ?
 
It's a great pity. As a piece of music it is outstanding when sung by a good choir that now how to sing "free flowing" music of its origin. The trouble is "white men have got no rhythm" and it ends up dull a boring.
On the basis that the crowds at Rugby games butcher the song it should be banned!

Seriously, I have no issue with anybody singing it. It people take the time to learn a bit about the song and its context they may end up understanding the issues, it raises, a bit better.
 
I think the song that really should be discouraged is Delilah
(runs for cover)

but seriously, the lyrics are very strange: he realises his gf is cheating, so he stabs her. How did that ever become a rugby song ?
 
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crossref said:
I think the song that really should be discouraged is Delilah
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well, as its about the muder of an ex-lover its bordering on domestic violence and certainly criminal activity. similarly Fields of Athenry regarding a convict/felon. As for 500 miles... well, that is just shit anyway.

didds
 
crossref said:
no. it found its way into rugby much earlier than that - some time in the sixties from the memories I am seeing on twitter
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I am as sceptical of these claims as I am of those who claim they had coronavirus last October.

crossref said:
It became associated with the England team in the 80s and, yes, that migration was on the back of celebrating the first wave of black players in to the team (yes I know about Jimmy Peters)
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Look, I'm not trying to take offence on someone else's behalf, but that seems like a pretty racist kind of "celebration".
 
Pablo said:
I am as sceptical of these claims as I am of those who claim they had coronavirus last October.

.
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i absolutely know when I first sung it - it was at university, I was there from 82-85 - we sang it often.


here are some other eye witness accounts
https://twitter.com/brianmoore666/status/1273733967980658689

If it had not been already a rugby song, no one would have know the words at Twickenham - it was pretty obscure back then. I had never heard of it
 
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It was already being sung in my clubhouse in Montreal when I started playing club rugby in 1984.
 
buff said:
It was already being sung in my clubhouse in Montreal when I started playing club rugby in 1984.
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there you go .
and on twitter see it was being sung in NSW and Wales.

what happened in the mid-late 80s was
- it began to be sang at Twickenham and (a big change) - it became associated specifically with England
- more people outside the song-singing rugby community became aware of it.

Personally I am not convinced it had much to do with Offiah/Oti/Underwood, I just think it was a song that (for no particular reason) just spread from the clubhouse to Twickenham .
 
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I was singing it with actions whn playing with the grown ups as a sixth former and I came up in 1982.
I was also at the 1987 Middlesex 7s watching Harriman in the quarters.
 
[B said:
crossref[/B]] I think the song that really should be discouraged is Delilah
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didds said:
well, as its about the muder of an ex-lover its bordering on domestic violence and certainly criminal activity. similarly Fields of Athenry regarding a convict/felon. As for 500 miles... well, that is just shit anyway.

didds
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Delilah is crap as it Tom Jones. The great history of Choral singing at Cardiff Arms Park and we are reduced to that piece of detritus!

The Fields of Athenry is on a different level and is another reference to a difficult time in history and a cracking song.
 
L'irlandais said:
I can’t see Sweet Caroline being adopted by the fans.
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social distancing ! the lyrics are not COVID-Secure :)

indeed I have heard a theory that it was the precise combination of Sweet Caroline, and Folie Douce that caused the virus to spread all over european ski resorts in Jan/Feb
 
The Fields of Athenry is more of a provincial anthem. It’s taken Irish Rugby fans a long time to warm to the song commissioned by the IRFU Ireland’s call. Good luck with finding something that will please everyone, it’s impossible.
 
Brian O'Driscoll reveals how he changed his tune on Ireland's Call following advice from his mother
BOD said:
I stopped singing Ireland's Call for three or four games, and she just said to me: "You're Ireland captain. You're all about inclusiveness and togetherness, and here you are as Ireland captain and not leading by example."

"I thought 'you're dead right' and I started to sing with the same level of passion as Amhran Na bhFiann. Anthems are a strange thing. They are symbolic but they mean different things to different people.
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:shrug:
I view it like this, I stand to I sing the Irish National Anthem. I respect the rights of other not to do so. I’d be pretty upset if anyone disrespected God Save the Queen at Ravenhill (now kingspan) Stadium in Belfast. Funny things anthems imbued with lots of National pride.

CJ Stander shows just how much it means to him to play for Ireland, when he belts out the anthem in Gaelic.
If a South African can learn to sign the Irish anthem, how come in a 100 years nobody from North of the border has given it a go? By not doing so, it’s bringing politics on to the field of play. Don’t get me wrong, nobody minds folks not singing, but sometimes it is more than prematch nerves that prevents a player from doing so.

The French soccer squad has loads of foreign born players, yet before any International game they will only play La Marseillaise. That is in no way intend as a slight to any of those players or their country of birth. When you play for a National team that’s the way it is, worldwide. I am very proud Irish rugby is inclusive, just not convinced being the only country on the planet with two anthems before the game is the best way to show this inclusiveness. It’s like picking at an open wound, it won’t heal until you stop.

As for The fields of Athenry, it’s popular.
 
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