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A derby: “A sports match between two rival teams from the same area.” Without exaggeration, there are few terms in the lexicon of sport that get the blood pumping as much as ‘local derby’.
Team sport, in its simplest form, is a group of men or women trying to implement a skill against others, whilst representing a particular place or area. When those said people have to implement that skill against men or women from the same area, the outcomes can be seismic, whereby deeds done on the field of play may be talked about for years, decades and generations afterwards.
Players who have played the game of rugby union will have undoubtedly played in derbies and there’s no denying that there is something special about these games. Perhaps to the frustrations of some coaches, these games should be no different to other fixtures: it’s still 15 players against 15 opponents, on the same pitches with the same rules and the same game plans – and yet these games are different. From the pre-match build up, the game itself and the aftermath, derbies can, for those involved, become all-consuming affairs. From the moment the fixture lists are released, furtive and eager glances scan the ink or screens, in search of those matches.
Although derbies carry the same gravitas all around the rugby world, I would perhaps argue that the geography of South Wales, combined with the country’s obsession with rugby union, makes derbies different here. Threaded throughout the numerous valleys, you’ll have teams – sometime literally – within a stone’s throw of each other.
ALL SHAPES & ZEBRAS FROM TREORCHY 17