Another valiant effort

We watched another super game of rugby this morning with both teams putting in a valiant effort. And as I said in yesterday’s blog, someone has to lose. Again, we watched, as the team, one point down, fought for that win, whilst the other team fought to increase its lead. I feel so deeply for the losing team in games such as these, where the men have given every single ounce of energy they have, yet still they have not managed to secure that win. Today it was France’s turn for disappointment, while the South Africans will face England in next week’s quarter final.

Despair, and that word I used in last week’s blog, crestfallen, display universal characteristics. We don’t have to understand their language or even the rules of the game to understand the depth of pain these men are experiencing. Their faces and body posture say it all. I can’t help myself, but I cry too, for them, for their pain. I want to wrap my arms around them and tell them it is only a game, that they’ll be all right in another week or so, that I admire their courage and their determination, that, regardless of the loss, it makes no difference in my eyes, not when they played so damn well.

I have watched some of the other teams not performing as well as they were capable of. They deserved their losses, but Ireland yesterday and France today, no way. Really it came down to the luck of the draw, literally. France bet us and now they have been knocked out. Would it have been us going home if we had beaten France and thus played South Africa ourselves? If I had beaten a team that proceeded past me to the quarter finals, I would be feeling hard done by too.

France is the host nation for this year’s World Cup. There would be thousands of people, both in the stadium and in their homes who would also be feeling the pain, not just for the boys, but their own pain. Wouldn’t it have been lovely if France had won today’s match.  

All these experiences can only shape the people we become in the future, the teams we become. There is nothing like an unexpected loss to put the fire back in our psyche, to realise the depth of our hunger, the next time around.

And let’s put it into perspective. It is only a game that has been lost, not anyone’s life.