Rugby

Watched the rugby World Cup yesterday, and that has to be a first for me. I've never actually sat through a rugby match before, and I doubt that I ever will again, though you can never say never. I suppose if England, or any other of the 'home' nations ever get to the final again, that I suppose I might.
Rugby really isn't my sport, and never has been. My father was a great sports fan, but only of football, cricket, horse racing and boxing. These sports were always on TV, whenever there was something on, which wasn't often in pre-Sky Sports days, and sport was always part of my life. One of my earliest memories is going to Oxford City's White House ground (they played in the Isthmian League, one of the top amateur divisions) which was round the corner to our house. He would take me from the age of about two, to get me out of the house and give my mother a break. I spent the time toddling up and down the terraces out in the fresh air, my father would watch the football, and a good time was had by all. So football was part of the landscape of my life from the beginning.
As I grew older my brother became a football fan and played for his school team, and although he went to a rugby-playing secondary school, it remained a major part of his life.
It's not, now, and if he goes to watch anything, it's rugby. You can still stand, and there's a complete lack of yobbish behaviour, and rugby isn't, as yet, tainted with the unimaginable avalanche of money that has blighted football.
But somehow I really can't get worked up by rugby. I don't understand the rules - I know what scrums, line-outs, drop-kicks, and penalties are, but have no idea what they're awarded for, and have no real wish to know. It seems to me to consist of 15 men hurling themselves at each other for 80 minutes - I know there's a lot more to it than that, but, ultimately, my interest in finding out what that is is, is virtually non-existent.
But any World Cup final is, nevertheless, a great sporting occasion, and I always feel drawn to the big occasion - I'm sure my father would have watched it, though he didn't have a great deal of interest in rugby. I don't think he felt it was particularly relevant to his life - though I know things have changed.
So I watched it. I have to admit my eyelids drooped at times - I really don't know whether I'd have been more interested if England had won, but, to me, they never looked like doing so.
A strange experience - will it be repeated? Who knows.....
Now for Formula One tomorrow....