As I wrote a couple of months ago, I've started going to spectate at Edinburgh Rugby home games. After several years spent watching in the rink next door the comparisons are becoming interesting. I've only been to four games so far, but the most striking differences become obvious quickly.
Compared to hockey the oval ball game feels much slower, the action more distant and less inherently skilful (they don't have to do all that they do perched on narrow blades across a slippery surface, do they?). And while the Fridge of Dreams was a chilly place to sit for a few hours it was, at least, consistently chilly, and dry, so you knew exactly what to dress for. Finally I miss the "Cheers" aspect of going to the rink, it did feel like a place "where everybody knows your name".
But then there are the pros too. I'm watching a much higher level of the sport than I got to see next door, with many of the players on the pitch likely to be heading for Japan in September/October, when the World Cup takes place. The whole operation is so much more professional, so much more twenty first century, from the big TV screens to the PA that's so clear you can actually make out what's being said. And five, six, seven thousand people make a lot more noise than five, six, seven hundred. (Even if the chants are nowhere near as entertaining....)
But the biggest difference of all is a simple one, and still takes the most getting used to. Edinburgh Rugby win matches. Regularly. Supporting Caps was never like this. I could almost wish I get to see them lose just to have that old feeling back again. But only almost.
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