Better to Travel than Arrive? - October 2007

English sports fans experiences are very different to those of Australia fans - Rugby World Cup

If England get beaten by France in the second semi final of the Rugby World Cup on Sunday, the sounds of Australians cheering may be louder than that of English wailing.
For having been beaten by the 'mother country' in Marseille in the quarter finals, one thing many Australians will be looking forward to celebrating this weekend is an England loss.
But for Australians to celebrate an English loss is essentially missing the point, for the sporting experiences and expectations of each country are very different.
In Australia we excel at sport, sport in many ways defining much of our national character. Here I feel it's always worth remembering that Australian national sporting teams pre-dated the Australian Commonwealth.
Our success in sport is completely out of proportion to the size of our population, as evidenced by our being world champions in rugby, rugby league, cricket, netball as well as a host of minor sports, while individual Australian sportspeople excel in sports such as tennis, golf, soccer, swimming, motorcycle racing and others.
As a result, we expect and almost demand sporting triumph and are quick to turn on perceived sporting failures on the odd occasions when they do arise.
In recent weeks, our media have been particularly harsh on Eddie Jones and George Gregan, notwithstanding that they have, respectively, coached and captained a team that has won six matches in a row and were just two games away from an unprecedented third Rugby World Cup triumph.
All this in our third or fourth most popular football code, Australia's success ranking against one Rugby World Cup win each for South Africa and New Zealand - countries where rugby is a religion.
And for Australian sports stars who 'fail', they, like other sporting 'failures' back to Kim Hughes and beyond, will be dealt with harshly.
Contrast this with the English sporting experience. Living in England for the first 35 of my forty plus years, I sometimes kid myself that I can recall England's World Cup (soccer) triumph of 1966. In reality I was then a short trousered fiend playing with my cars and trucks and not remotely interested in what so animated my family.
Through adolescence and right through to today I have supported a soccer team that never wins anything - so this experience won't ring true with fans of Liverpool as they 'conquered' European soccer in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Later, as I married an Australian girl, so the English (ok British) rugby league team won the first test of the 1990 Kangaroo tour, but Australia then won the next two.
Through this barren period, there was at least the Botham Ashes series of 1981 and a brief period of cricketing success under Mike Gatting.
Along the way England reached World Cup semi finals and quarter finals, being beaten by Maradona's feet (and hand) and 'ruthlessly efficient' Germans; lost the 1991 Rugby World Cup final to Campo, Farr-Jones and co; have endured cricketing humiliations and play the likes of Lesotho and Bhutan in qualifying rounds for the Davis Cup.
But through all of this, through each tour, qualifier and competition there has been hope. Perhaps, misguided and often with an inner feeling that it will all end in disappointment, but this sporting hope has prevailed.
It is this hope that sustains the 'Barmy Army' through cricket tours that they know will end in tears, and it is this hope that sustains a certain joy in supporting English sporting teams.
Put simply, their joy is in their journey, and whatever happens along the way.
Nigel Benton, Publisher, Australasian Leisure Management. 10th October 2007
http://www.ausleisure.com