The New Zealand and South African Rugby teams made the news this week with their nude rugby match on St Kilda beach.
(UPDATE: In fact, the NY Daily News story cited here appears to have got a little over excited: the players were NOT from the All Blacks and the Boks but local amateur players taking part in a mid-winter naked rugby tradition that has gone on for years – see Uroskin’s comment below and on his blog.)
Held before their official match, and sponsored by ‘Bottom Bus’ (a local tour agency, allegedly), it looks at first glance like a realisation of the spornographic fantasy of those Dieux Du Stade calendars and those ‘Paris: City of Love posters’ with snogging rugby players advertising the Rugby World Cup last year. And perhaps in a way it is.
But the naughty slogans scrawled on their bodies and the general mayhem seems to have more of the trademark, old-style rugger bugger hazing humour. Porn and DDS (and UFC) by contrast, are a very serious business.
This seems more like a genuine, beery, blokey laugh.
Nice arses, though.
Dear Mark,
Did you manage to get a copy of Johnny Jarvis with Mark Farmer, He was hot in the early 1980s this show is significant to my generation. It is very rare and sells on raremedia.co.uk for 10 quid try and see it, it takes you back to that era. Mark also, can you tell me your views on clubs like the Fort which are boots only sex clubs.
I bet if rugby was played like that, broadcast right costs would be through the roof, as would ratings!
I loved the Torygraph article you linked to, I didn’t know they would run an article like that with such humorous tone.
Thanks for pointing that out, Hans! I’m sure I must have seen your naked rugby post a couple of years ago – unforgiveable of me to forget something so unforgettable. Interesting though that the media now gives this tradition so much coverage – and upgrades it to national sides. What had been a low-key amateur beery blokey rugger bugger tradition in NZ has been turned into prime-time pro-sporno by the global media.
Seems like the media shares your dream of the day when all rugby is played like this….
and here: http://uroskin.blogspot.com/2006/09/rugby-as-it-should-be-played.html
The naked rugby mid-winter match is a bit of a tradition down in Dunedin (nothing between it and Antarctica a bit further south) but it was certainly not played by the ABs and the Boks. Instead it’s a student tradition: http://uroskin.blogspot.com/2004/06/real-men-play-rugby-au-naturel-theres.html
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