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In Argentina for socio-economic reasons, historically rugby is played by the upper middle class. People who have more resources to cope with such a difficult sport like rugby: A lot of training and a lot of injuries (Higher than football). For this reason, the upper middle class people are more likely to excel in a sport like rugby to face the Europeans and Pacific Islanders internationally.
Football is the working class sport, most of the big footballers of Argentine are from the working class, they have lived in ghettos such as: Maradona, Kun Aguero, Angel Di Maria, Tevez, etc. In Argentina, football is seen as the sport of blacks (Blacks = Working class) and rugby is seen as the sport of whites (Whites = Upper middle class).
In Argentina there is no black-skinned people, here blacks are the descendants of American Indians and whites are the descendants of European (especially Italian and Spanish).
Working class = Descendants of American Indians
Upper middle class = Descendants of European
Here a kind of civil war exists in sport, the working class celebrates The Pumas defeats. Even they have a special nickname for the Pumas (And in general for all rugby players): "GORDOS CHETOS" in Spanish. "Fat Millionaires" in English, that's like saying the people from upper middle class are fat and play rugby. That's pure ignorance, they have never played rugby or know international rugby players only know Lomu. So when they see a rugby's game through the TV once or twice a year, and when they see a scrum, they see the first rows are fat, then they think all rugby players are fat, they don't know nothing about rugby.
That's the reason why the Argentine journalism specializing in rugby is so kind to the Pumas and support the team 100% even if the results are bad. In Argentina there are 110,000 amateur rugby players, the rest of the country hates rugby and wants the national team always loses. Because they see rugby as the sport of the ruling class, like in SA in RWC 1995 (Not sure if this is still the case). Blacks hated Boks because they considered that Rugby as the white's sport, upper class, who dominated the country. In Argentina is exactly the same, and even worse for those who are middle class and don't like rugby, watch the rugby players as hooligans who only want to fight in pubs and drink beer.
Rugby in Argentina is a kind of cult, where everybody knows everybody and we all support each other and people who aren't on the rugby circuit, usually hates rugby and see us as hooligans. And those who hate rugby, just watch the Pumas' games in the RWC and in big games versus ABs or Boks.
This situation worsened with the third place finish in RWC 2007, and many people began to praise the Pumas, journalists (Even journalists who don't watch rugby often) said that the Pumas were the proudest national team. And as the national soccer team had more than 20 years without winning a world cup (The last world cup was won with Maradona in Mexico 86) some football supporters said that The Pumas gave them more pride than the national soccer team. That was a very great injured for football supporters because they couldn't say anything, it was true. The Pumas were the world pride for Argentina.
Now the situation has changed, the defeats are common with The Rugby Championship (This is something that the rugby supporters knew that could happen, many we imagined that the incursion of The Pumas in Tri Nations could be as tough as the incursion of Italy in 5 Nations). Many football supporters who supported the Pumas in RWC 2007 now say: "The Pumas have cheated me, I thought they were the best in the world". And this situation is exploited by football supporters as revenge, they say things like: "The Pumas lose every game because they are upper middle class, if the rugby was the working class sport, Argentina would be the best team the world with the best players like football".
Let me tell you that these sayings are pure lies, that's something unverifiable and also not in line with reality. If you look at the best Argentine football players, most are dwarfs of 1.69 mts and 65 kg as: Maradona, Messi or Kun Aguero. In the best case, with a very good physical condition, in rugby they could be scrum-halves but for a sport like rugby, you need backs of 95-105 kg as Dan Carter, Israel Folau or Bryan Habana. You need locks of 2,00 meters and 125 kgs like Eben Etzebeth or Sam Whitelock and you need back rows of 110 kg like Kieran Read, Francois Low or Wycliff Palu.
I tell a personal anecdote to show that that's a lie. Once with my rugby club we went to a ghetto to teach rugby to the poor people. Ok, I acknowledge that I and my rugby teammates are from the upper middle class. Most of them were football players and almost all weighed 50 kgs on average. While my fellow rugby (Upper middle class) were most strong guys, they drank protein shakes, supplements like Creatine, some even taking steroids and of course, had plenty of food at home, unlike the situation the working class who do not have good nutrition. The result was clear, the boys of the upper middle class were stronger than boys of the working class and my rugby teammates were overcome to footballers easily, in each "face to face", the boys of the upper middle class pushed back to footballers. Then it's a lie that they could be the best in the world
I just wanted to share this story with you who love rugby, here our sport isn't welcomed by the working class. Perhaps Afrikaners live a similar situation in his country between blacks and whites.
Cheers
Football is the working class sport, most of the big footballers of Argentine are from the working class, they have lived in ghettos such as: Maradona, Kun Aguero, Angel Di Maria, Tevez, etc. In Argentina, football is seen as the sport of blacks (Blacks = Working class) and rugby is seen as the sport of whites (Whites = Upper middle class).
In Argentina there is no black-skinned people, here blacks are the descendants of American Indians and whites are the descendants of European (especially Italian and Spanish).
Working class = Descendants of American Indians
Upper middle class = Descendants of European
Here a kind of civil war exists in sport, the working class celebrates The Pumas defeats. Even they have a special nickname for the Pumas (And in general for all rugby players): "GORDOS CHETOS" in Spanish. "Fat Millionaires" in English, that's like saying the people from upper middle class are fat and play rugby. That's pure ignorance, they have never played rugby or know international rugby players only know Lomu. So when they see a rugby's game through the TV once or twice a year, and when they see a scrum, they see the first rows are fat, then they think all rugby players are fat, they don't know nothing about rugby.
That's the reason why the Argentine journalism specializing in rugby is so kind to the Pumas and support the team 100% even if the results are bad. In Argentina there are 110,000 amateur rugby players, the rest of the country hates rugby and wants the national team always loses. Because they see rugby as the sport of the ruling class, like in SA in RWC 1995 (Not sure if this is still the case). Blacks hated Boks because they considered that Rugby as the white's sport, upper class, who dominated the country. In Argentina is exactly the same, and even worse for those who are middle class and don't like rugby, watch the rugby players as hooligans who only want to fight in pubs and drink beer.
Rugby in Argentina is a kind of cult, where everybody knows everybody and we all support each other and people who aren't on the rugby circuit, usually hates rugby and see us as hooligans. And those who hate rugby, just watch the Pumas' games in the RWC and in big games versus ABs or Boks.
This situation worsened with the third place finish in RWC 2007, and many people began to praise the Pumas, journalists (Even journalists who don't watch rugby often) said that the Pumas were the proudest national team. And as the national soccer team had more than 20 years without winning a world cup (The last world cup was won with Maradona in Mexico 86) some football supporters said that The Pumas gave them more pride than the national soccer team. That was a very great injured for football supporters because they couldn't say anything, it was true. The Pumas were the world pride for Argentina.
Now the situation has changed, the defeats are common with The Rugby Championship (This is something that the rugby supporters knew that could happen, many we imagined that the incursion of The Pumas in Tri Nations could be as tough as the incursion of Italy in 5 Nations). Many football supporters who supported the Pumas in RWC 2007 now say: "The Pumas have cheated me, I thought they were the best in the world". And this situation is exploited by football supporters as revenge, they say things like: "The Pumas lose every game because they are upper middle class, if the rugby was the working class sport, Argentina would be the best team the world with the best players like football".
Let me tell you that these sayings are pure lies, that's something unverifiable and also not in line with reality. If you look at the best Argentine football players, most are dwarfs of 1.69 mts and 65 kg as: Maradona, Messi or Kun Aguero. In the best case, with a very good physical condition, in rugby they could be scrum-halves but for a sport like rugby, you need backs of 95-105 kg as Dan Carter, Israel Folau or Bryan Habana. You need locks of 2,00 meters and 125 kgs like Eben Etzebeth or Sam Whitelock and you need back rows of 110 kg like Kieran Read, Francois Low or Wycliff Palu.
I tell a personal anecdote to show that that's a lie. Once with my rugby club we went to a ghetto to teach rugby to the poor people. Ok, I acknowledge that I and my rugby teammates are from the upper middle class. Most of them were football players and almost all weighed 50 kgs on average. While my fellow rugby (Upper middle class) were most strong guys, they drank protein shakes, supplements like Creatine, some even taking steroids and of course, had plenty of food at home, unlike the situation the working class who do not have good nutrition. The result was clear, the boys of the upper middle class were stronger than boys of the working class and my rugby teammates were overcome to footballers easily, in each "face to face", the boys of the upper middle class pushed back to footballers. Then it's a lie that they could be the best in the world
I just wanted to share this story with you who love rugby, here our sport isn't welcomed by the working class. Perhaps Afrikaners live a similar situation in his country between blacks and whites.
Cheers
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