I completely disagree. If the Barker crowd had been as obviously boisterous and disruptive when HW was taking the final penalty and he missed, the Waverley old boys would be crying foul st the tops of their lungs. The fact that the Barker crowd respected the moment and we’re deathly silent meant that the Waverley old boys had nothing to whinge about and that only highlights the cultural gulf between the supporter groups. I am sure the Waverley teachers and Head are equally embarrassed. For the record the Waverley students were passionate and respectful. No qualm with the students behaviour.
I wasnt going to comment on this, but i will. Barker won fair and square and good luck to them.
It was a great game and rugby was the winner.
However, a couple of points:
Comparing the Barker parents and schoolboys crowd to the Waverley OldBoys crowd is ridiculous.
Generally speaking, schoolboys from all schools are well behaved as spectators and if they're not they get disciplined. Parents in general are also usually pretty good.
Recent OldBoys however, are a different kettle of fish. It's been well documented that they get tanked up at the local and gee each other up and can act like dickheads. It's happened at Waverley, at Barker and at other schools.
It's the nature of the beast; it's usually only a minority but still its not good. They wont be acting the same way in 5 years time and in 10 years time will probably cringe at their behaviour.
No one likes it or approves but trying to control it is a different challenge.
But a Cultural gulf? What a self righteous, falsely superior crock .....
Barker played silly buggers with the team list. There's no excuses and if anyone voiced their disapproval at Waverley's inaccurate team list last season, they should be just as disapproving this season.
What i was most disappointed about with Barker, leaving the inaccurate team list aside, was the way one of their players was hobbling around like a cripple before the game but then had a miraculous recovery to play the full 70 minutes.
But I dont blame the player: he's a schoolboy and schoolboys play schoolboy pranks. He's actually a champion player and probably mates with the Waverley boys. I dont think any of the Waverley players were taken in by it.
However, someone from Barker deserves a serious rap over the knuckles in allowing this stupidity to happen. By not taking action to stop it, and there was good opportunity to do so because it was so visible, it was being condoned .... condoned by inaction, by adults. It was funny from a schoolboys point of view no doubt, but over the top, immature and inappropriate from an adults perspective.
And they should be embarrassed by it.
You know what they say about glass houses ........
I hope all of this rubbish is left out of the equation next year, with post match discussion being only about the game and possibly also about the recent Old Boys' behaviour which wouldn't come as a great shock.
