Big Game 13 (looking back)
Today I am taking up my esteemed sports editor Mr Hollingworth’s general invitation issued to Rust contributors who might like to post upon the subject of England Premiership club Harlequins’ Big Game 13 which took place last Monday (27th December) at RFU Twickenham.
The ‘Big Game’ concept – persuading the Premiership to allow them to mount one of their home matches at the RFU’s Twickenham Stadium (aka “HQ”) between Christmas and New Year every year – was a chancy wheeze dreamed up by someone in the Quins marketing department that over time has paid off with bells on for both the club and indeed the Premiership itself.
It now represents an annual showcase for England rugby’s elite club competition that not only attracts a 70,000-plus crowd to what Quins and its fans – with the air of arrogance and self-entitlement that often makes them the club that other Premiership clubs like to beat most – like to call “The Big Stoop”, but also attracts a huge festive television audience as well.
On Monday I and my better half joined a three-generation family outing to Big Game 13 – whose annual sequence was interrupted in 2020 by Covid – and this is probably the point at which I should give a shout out to Quins’ veteran scrum half Danny Care [84 England caps, over 300 club appearances for Quins, some 230-plus of them in the Premiership], who incidentally turns 35 on Sunday, and who has started in all 13 of these games.
My present purpose is to record some of my impressions of the day and since.
First up, a great deal of the anticipatory sense of build-up and excitement generated within the McDonnell household came from the chance to “get out” after the indulgences of the Christmas weekend in itself.
We’re a rugby family and so – whether we individually ever played the game, or simply came to appreciate and love it over years of watching it “live” and/or on television – the opportunity to see a Premiership match as part of a massive crowd was always an attractive one. Added to which, as it was my granddaughter and her boyfriend’s first-ever visit to see a Premiership game in the flesh, the rest of our party were keen that they enjoyed it and found the experience memorable.
I’m pleased to report that, on all personal levels, our expedition on Monday was a resounding success – and not just because, as Londoners, we were notionally supporting Quins on the day and both their women’s (29-5) and men’s teams (41-27) won their games over Wasps and Northampton Saints respectively.
The entre build-up to the games – the early start, the successful but crucial task of finding a place to park close to the Stadium so to be able to get away afterwards; the lunch at a crowded pub on Twickenham Green full of rugby fans; the walk to the ground and the relief that we all “passed” the Covid-necessary precautions at the main entrance without incident; the food stalls, the stages with bands playing, the fire-eaters and other entertainments laid on; the “sense of occasion and anticipation” in moving about among a huge crowd [despite the potential Covid dangers this also represented]; being in the crowd lining the pavements as (as is their tradition) the Quins matchday 23 and all their coaches and support staff slowly walked from The Stoop over the A316 walkway and thence to “HQ” itself – all generated a wonderful sense of togetherness and collective excitement.
And now to the “Morning After The Night Before” part of my post today.
Yesterday afternoon the family deliberately sat down together at tea-time in order to watch the replays of both matches on BT Sport, just to be able to compare what we recalled of their major incidents and scoring sequences with BT Sport’s coverage of the same.
Firstly – and most importantly, and this is not a “woke” feminist complaint – it was extremely unfortunate (not to mention unforgiveable?) that all that one could “arrange” to watch again of the clash between Quins women and Wasps women were short clips of two of the Harlequins’ best tries.
BT Sport were quite happy to provide a “full, unedited version” of the men’s match that one could watch again in real time – but apparently not of the women’s equivalent.
You’d think in these days of organisations from the Whitehall Civil Service downwards through County Councils, commercial businesses and companies, opinion-formers everywhere and (of course) and the Westminster Parliament falling over themselves to “prove” their woke and “equality” credentials, the broadcaster holding the rights to both the men’s England Premiership (and women’s Premiership 15s competition) would at least offer its viewers the opportunity to watch a prime example of the women’s game from start to finish, especially when they had televised it “live” and must also have recorded it for posterity.
In my book, that’s discrimination by any yardstick. I’d not only like to know how and why BT Sport took this decision, I’d also like to know – if the rugby authorities negotiating the contract with BT Sport failed to insist upon a requirement that both Big Game rugby matches should be available to view again from start to finish – how and why they didn’t. (In my day, such an omission would have prompted a reprimand, if not worse).
Secondly – and for this I return the old Rust chestnut issue of “Which is superior – the experience of being actually present at a sporting event/game, or that of sitting at home and watching it on TV?”
Having been at Big Game 13 in the flesh with 70,000 others inside Twickenham Stadium on Monday – for all its many plusses and the senses of camaraderie and fun generated by simply being part of a large crowd, including the roar every time some exciting incident took place on the pitch – and then watched the full [2 hours 40 minute?] unedited version of BT Sport’s coverage yesterday afternoon, I can honestly report that the answer is a slam-dunk “no contest”.
The understanding and appreciation of every single aspect of the match action from the details of the play to the controversies, and even the substitutions, was infinitely superior when viewed from the television perspective.
End of message.
