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B BOXING DAY
“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.” So said Gloucester in Shakespeare’s King Lear – or was it Eric Cantona?
Either way, this slice of existential musing rings true on Boxing Day for many rugby union players – both professional and amateur. With all the fun and feasting from Christmas still in the system, players are expected to lace up the boots, don the jerseys and perform up and down the land for the amusement of well-oiled and excitable crowds. League fixtures are often scheduled for the Saturday before Christmas.
However, because of ‘Black Friday’, the infamous day of work Christmas parties and the night of the year that the NHS and emergency services have their busiest shifts, in my experience very few of those Saturday fixtures actually go ahead. Regardless of the weather, many a pitch up and down the land seems to be waterlogged on that particular day, so by the time 26th December rolls around, the fans are ready for it. The fixtures are something to put in the calendar, something to punctuate the ‘nothing days’ between Christmas and New Year and are a heady dose of excitement and delight before a long and listless January.
So, as is often the case, Boxing Day fixtures tend to be derbies (more on those, shortly), so the stakes are high and the hue and shade of the rest of the festive season
ALL SHAPES & ZEBRAS FROM TREORCHY 9