A Proper Day for Flag Waving & Patriotism
England wins Rugby World Cup 2025 & Europe wins The Ryder Cup in America
So the England women’s rugby team were triumphant on Saturday. We were up against Canada, who had performed beyond expectations to reach the final, beating New Zealand in the semi-finals. New Zealand had won the previous two World Cups in 2017 and 2021, beating England in the final.
My interest in women's rugby is quite recent, and due to the tournament being held here. I have always watched the men play in the Six Nations but not the women. That has now completely changed. I was so surprised at the competitive level and the skills of the women. There is no difference between the ability of men and women who play the game.
There were nearly 82,000 people at Twickenham to watch the final. The audience was fairly split between men and women, but unlike at male-dominated football matches, there were a lot of young girls and women in attendance. The atmosphere was noticeably different, with everyone joining in with the playlist of songs rather than the aggressive, demeaning, and lewd chants that emanate from the divided supporters at a football match. These boorish and moronic chants are sickening and are repeated with names changed in those fascist demonstrations now taking place outside asylum hotels.
The people attending the match were there to enjoy the day and the match. Many of those at a football match are there to confront the other side's supporters with verbal abuse and abusive gestures and signs. It is a visceral and disquieting public display of ignorance. We know that when England men play football, the incidents of domestic violence surge. Football is still tribal and involves dominance and male power.
At the women's rugby, all the crowds during the whole competition were a breath of fresh air and were an advertisement for the very best of this country. Plenty of flags were being raised in support of the England team, but there was no threat behind these flags. This was supporting the team of your country. There was great unity on display, and it was a non-threatening, non-aggressive display. I was immensely proud of the Twickenham crowd and just as proud of the women who played so magnificently.
What I felt was less aggression from the women than from the men who compete at this level. The game was fiercely competitive, but I felt it was less about dominance through an individual’s power and physical strength than about a team game where each player used their skillset to enhance the power of the team. Aggression was there, but restricted to the tackle on the pitch. When an England player was sent off for a dangerous tackle, it looked and felt like a male player being overly aggressive and dangerous. It felt and looked so wrong. It was aggression beyond the necessary. How like so many men, in general.
The atmosphere was not intimidating, unlike at many football clubs when the away team arrives for matchday. I am getting sick and tired of the latent threat involved in supporting and watching your football team. It is a subculture that has now become a political weapon in the march of demagogues into London and into Parliament.
It is a fight for the political destiny of this country, and it is decency versus ignorance where violence is threatened, flags are waved in intimidation, and football chants are sung on the streets as the country descends into Fascism.
At Twickenham, it was glorious. People were so happy and so proud of the team and the country without a fascist-like need to dominate and subdue the dignity and existence of the Other — immigrant or ethnic minority or asylum seeker. There were families there with young children. This was not a battle but a celebration of women's sport. To be at the apex of your sport does not need a display of tribal affiliation or masculine violence in overload or huge quantities of alcohol as Dutch courage, but the love of the sport.
And late on Sunday, the golfers of Europe were triumphant against the USA in the Ryder Cup 2025. But the American crowd was aggressive and vile. The comments made to Rory McIlroy before and after playing his golf shots were disgusting and offensive. Yet he reacted only once directly. This, of course, only encouraged these “patriotic” morons further.
But Rory responded in the best way by winning. These American idiots went home very quietly as Europe celebrated a historic victory away from home. Rory deserves a Victoria Cross for continuing to play under very heavy fire. He was wounded but found a way to channel it — into his already formidable skillset and triumph in adversity. As the whole European team did. A special shout-out for Shane Lowry. Immense competitor and thoroughly decent human being.
Trump had turned up on Friday morning expecting the American team to beat Europe and was nowhere to be seen or heard in New York on Saturday or Sunday evening as those boorish, unsporting American yobs went home to cry or play the game on their consoles. They had crossed a line at the Ryder Cup, and had America won it would have been rewarding a home crowd for vile and offensive intimidation of opponents in a great sporting occasion.
The Ryder Cup would have been tarnished, and the vilest of mud slung would have stuck to that glorious golden trophy. America First and Trump’s moronic patriotism were evident at Bethpage Black over the weekend. Political demagoguery had slithered its way into a great sporting occasion. And serpents were all across the golf course, yet had targeted Europe’s best player and World No. 2. I wonder why?
Golf is a spectator sport, and due to the nature of the game, people can get close to the players. It reminded me of the British football spectators who can yell abuse at players on the pitch, but this has been and is being clamped down on. I know there are similar issues in American football(NFL), but any abuse to a player is hardly noticeable given the size of American football stadiums.
The abuse from American patriots was ugly. As ugly as the vile chants recently heard in London by the fascist march organised by Stephen Yaxley Lennon (a.k.a Tommy Robinson). But that is the essence of common or garden fascism, with a crowd and mob riled up by a demagogue shouting abuse at those targeted for the colour of their skin, country of birth, religious denomination, or for supporting a different team. Their humanity is erased. Their status as human beings was eviscerated by hatred.
There was absolutely none of that aggression and uber-nationalistic behaviour when England played Canada at the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham, England, on Saturday. That these were women taking part is, I suspect, why. Mothers, daughters, and sisters as competitors, knowing that the bond between themselves on and off the pitch is far greater than any politicised patriotic (sic) nationalism now infesting America and England.
