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Sheer physicality: Joe El-Abd
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RCN Toulon |
Toulon flanker, FRC columnist - and former YTS at Brighton &
Hove Albion - Joe El Abd
this week reflects on the differences and similarities
between the professional sporting worlds of rugby union and
football.
I have just finished reading a book
called 'Woody and Nord – A football friendship'. It’s
about Gareth Southgate and Andy Woodman and their lives in
the world of football, and well worth a read if anyone’s
interested. While reading the book myself I got thinking
about the differences between the two sports, something that
I find particularly interesting given that I have two
brothers who both play football - Adam for Brighton & Hove
Albion, Sami for Hayes & Yeading - and it’s often a subject
that comes up in conversation.
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Fixtures
I am sure you have all heard of the
description often used to highlight the differences between
the two sports of ‘Football is a game for gentlemen played
by thugs, while rugby is a game for thugs played by
gentlemen’. It’s a phrase I love to use to wind up my
brothers with. While it's true to say that footballers
haven’t done much to help themselves off the pitch in the
past, to label them all as thugs is also probably a bit
unfair (especially when regarding the recent headlines in
the rugby media).
What is probably true, however, is that
rugby is a game for ‘thugs’. Although the term ‘thug’ is
perhaps a little harsh it's fair to say that the sheer
physicality of rugby compared to football is immense. It
takes rugby players the full seven days to recover from a
match while playing twice a week is the norm in football. My
brothers think us rugby players are mad when they see me
coming home sporting new scars from the previous week.
Physical
One of the biggest differences between
the lives of a rugby player and a footballer (apart from the
wages of course) is the training week. As footballers play
so often I would think that rugby players train twice as
much as their football counterparts. There is just so much
to cover in the rugby training week from lineouts to scrums
and due to its physical nature rugby players spend far
longer in the weights room. While strength and conditioning
is growing in football it's still routine for many
footballers to be in at 10am and home by 12 noon. Not bad
for a day's work some may say!
If you ask any professional sportsman
what is the most frustrating part of their job injury will
be very high on their list. While there is no doubt
footballers do suffer from a range of injuries, the severity
and incidence of injuries in rugby is far greater. This high
injury rate has a knock-on effect to the training week where
periods of recovery and frequent trips to the physio seem to
take up endless amounts of time. Also, the end of season
trip to the hospital for a scheduled operation seems to be
becoming far more commonplace. It will be interesting to see
what the long-term effects on the body are in professional
rugby players compared to footballers. Will we be doomed to
have even more time spent in hospital in our later lives?
There is no question that football is the biggest sport in
the world. It's probably the most popular sport in almost
every country bar North America. For example if you ask
Felipe Contepomi - Toulon's Argentine fly-half - he always
says that rugby is a sport but football is a religion. Even
out here in Toulon where the support is fanatical you only
have to look down the road to Marseille to see where rugby
fits in.
I will always remember being back in
Brighton when they were in the play-off finals and seeing
the whole town out in the pubs watching the match. I
remember thinking that the same support just wouldn’t happen
back in Bristol even if we were in the premiership final.
Rugby is definitely growing though, and while it may never
overtake football on the popularity front I think it may
come close in some countries.
While I’ve talked about the many
differences between the two sports, one thing they do seem
to share is banter. Sometimes as a rugby player I feel I
have never left school with the number of practical jokes
that occur on a daily basis. It may be childish but it seems
to keep the spirits up. In football one of the practical
jokes that still goes on is cutting off the end of socks and
putting deep heat in underwear. I am glad to say I haven’t
seen that sort of thing in rugby, or at least these jokes
have never been played on me! In every club whether it be
football or rugby you always find the club joker, the club
professional, the club intellect or the club loner (I could
go on) and it doesn’t take long to find out what players
slot into where, although I sometimes wonder where I fit in!
So, in essence, rugby players get paid
less, train harder and suffer more injuries, all for the
love of the game. For as a rugby player there can be no
question which is the better of the two sports. To play or
to watch rugby wins hands down.
A bientot
Previous columns:
07.10.09 -
'I keep telling them Rovigo is not Rome, but they're still excited'
28.09.09 -
'The three-part conundrum of winning
away in France'
22.09.09 -
'There's more to Jonny than just kicking'
14.09.09 -
Lesson number 1 - 'Pas de melée,
pas de victoire'
08.09.09 -
'The money's good, but so is the
weather, the rugby and the
crowds'
