Hi world! I’m Shaun (my mates call me Shaz hence the title) and you are reading the beginnings of my rugby blog, where I’ll be sharing my experiences as an Australian rugby fan, one trying to fan the flames of my rugby passion that has diminished to but a small ember. With the state of Australian rugby as it is, if you’re an Aussie rugby fan I’m sure you can relate… As it stands I damn well hope I’ll be able to rekindle the flame, as I’m all in for the pool stages of Japan! I certainly don’t plan on putting my hard-won tickets up for resale, but sadly I am glad of the option.
I watched, as all other Aussie rugby fans have, the ongoing horror story that is our game over the last few years. Of course, there’s been positives, the women winning gold in Rio and the stunning and scintillating rugby in Bledisloe II & III of 2017, but in times like the latter they’re notable for being the exception rather than the norm. Even lady luck hasn’t been one to shine on our patch, as can be seen by something like the terribly sad departure from our sport of the much beloved James Stannard. More on him at another point perhaps.
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I was there when we gloriously defeated England 33-13 , when we thought life as a rugby fan couldn’t get any better than knocking England out of their own RWC in the pool stages. The songs of home were sung to match the olde enemy’s hated hymn ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ and then we chanted “four more years” as we had 12 before. Out came the memes too – we were feeling on top of the world. Then the next saturday we did it all again, and from a purists’ perspective you might say we topped our efforts with what felt like the defensive performance of the century. That game I watched at the Star, and then the final at a mate’s place crammed in with 20 other mates. as we sadly succumbed to the indefatigable Black Mass of rugby dominance that is New Zealand rugby, although it was not songs of celebration this time but the silence that said “4 more years”.
In the time since there’s been a great deal more pain than pleasure like the Super Rugby kiwi-beating drought but if you’ve read this far, you know our story and the ups and downs aren’t pretty reading. I’ve not gotten angry or hateful, but slowly and surely the pain has taken a toll and I eventually became so disengaged and so disillusioned that by the time we played Wales in early November, I just bugged out and went cold turkey. I’d had enough, and whilst losing a job doesn’t help with ‘sparking joy’, in the bin the passion went.
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In the bin it stayed, out of sight but not out of mind. I did however make the effort to watch the two opening legs of the World Sevens Series. Sevens, our enigmatic supercharged version of rugby that can delight one moment and frustrate the next but always in style. Sevens was something that had given me great joy in the past, apart and distinct from the 15-a-side game watching it re-opened the door just a little. And so I’m returning again to sevens this weekend with the Hamilton Sevens and next weekend onto Sydney. Hope springs eternal, or at least it does for a sevens player with another game and redemption always on the horizon!
So follow me on twitter @therugbyfanshaz and check back here for your rugby fix. I’ll be posting as regularly as I can or please; on retrospectives on trips taken, to reviews of games current and previews of games coming up or just thoughts on rugby. I like photography (yep! that photo up the top is one of mine, AUSvFRA, 2014 at the SFS) and am a Tahs fan, Lindfield player off and on. If nothing else, I’m hoping some other poor soul is on the journey back to a full recovery as I hope to make, back to being addicted to the game they play in heaven, and that I can spark that joy again.
Shaun Lambert
ps the site is absolute barebones unfortunately, I’ll be looking to move to a more permanent setup soon enough with more bells and whistles than this
therugbyfanshaz 