Rugby World Culture

Since it's world cup season, there is a lot of exciting rugby news in the world. The BBC posted this story about rugby culture for those new to the sport. While obviously rugby traditions vary across culture and age level (e.g. our high school teams aren't socializing at the pub after matches), I like to see that there are those important common bonds that make rugby unique that the article points out. Specifically, the positive, sportsman like conduct of both players and fans. This is something that I hope our little league maintains as we move forward, even with our more structured play-off setting. Here some quotes from the article:

Positive Player conduct:

Key aspects to look out for in rugby include:
Low-key
celebrations - no
robotic dancing or going to the crowd
Any back-chat to
the referee is
punished by moving the penalty forward 10 yards
Players
rarely fake injury
Gracious in defeat - handshakes, as in football, and
"tunnels" of applause
at pitch-side, followed by socialising.

Positive Fan Conduct

When in the stadium, there's no segregation - rival supporters sit
side-by-side (unlike football (soccer). Fans are expected to respect the anthems
and allow players to prepare to kick penalties without being whistled.