Can we finally start to look forward to Saturday?
I’ve been deliberately not looking forward to it, just in case the worst happens and the game gets stalled on public health grounds. I’ve found doing that over the last few months – assuming everything I like will never happen – has been a decent coping mechanism with, you know, everything that’s going on.
If you can imagine that GIF of the guy tapping his temple right now go the extra mile and imagine the words “you can’t be disappointed if you never hope for anything” scrolling across his face in a glittering script font.
But time is ticking on and it looks like, fingers crossed, lucky shorts on, ancient blood magic rituals performed, that PRO14 rugby will be returning and, in particular, Leinster vs Munster in the Aviva Stadium. I’m beginning to hope.
And that’s really saying something because Leinster vs Munster games are normally my most despised fixtures of the season. It’s not just because Munster have come out on the wrong side of the result more often than not over the last few years – I mean, it hasn’t helped my enjoyment factor, let’s put it that way – but the atmosphere surrounding these games in my Twitter mentions before, during and after usually turns sour pretty quickly.
There are the angry Munster fans after a loss demanding everyone from the Director of Rugby to the stags on stilts get shown the road, the angry Leinster fans who are inexplicably Big Mad Online that they’ve won, and the odd Munster win when the salt mines overflow and angry car selfie avatar dudes wash into my mentions like a tidal wave of Joop!, Jeanz and Sheaux.
These are the perils of running a moderately successful social media account during high traffic events and, during a big match, that can be 400,000 impressions in one day.
But this time?
I’m looking forward to it.
Win or lose, rugby will be back. It’s that extra bit of normality that we’ve missed. I’m sick to death of watching old games, even old games where Munster win and win big because I know what happens. I want something new, whatever that new is.
Because of COVID, I know exactly where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing for the next three weeks.
I’ll be at home, showering, going out for food if it’s Monday, staying indoors, eating the same things I always eat, walking in the same place I always walk, working, eating and sleeping in roughly that order. It’s a solid routine, don’t get me wrong, but the unknowns are kept to a bare minimum.
But this Saturday from around half 7 to 9 o’clock in the evening I don’t have a clue what’s going to happen. I mean, I have an idea, there’ll be some rugby played, some light to medium controversy, a Twitter joke about James Lowe slapping ass that people will get wound up about again, and a result, but the manner in which these things occur is a complete mystery. What a joy!
And then this week we get the pre-match presser, the anticipation of the teamsheet, the team announcement itself (airhorn), the STAND UP AND FIGHT and then the game itself. This is what it was like before.
The world since March has been all about finding perspective every day but the beauty of a match is that it’s NO PERSPECTIVE ZONE for 80 whole minutes. For 80 minutes, we can forget about meat factories, bellends in Berlin Bar, rising case numbers and watch a game you’re invested in.
The lockdown has given me a new perspective on these big matchdays.
This isn’t a burden. This is a privilege.
It might often be misplaced but what I see in my mentions every big matchday is passion. Sometimes it’s absolutely insane, complete lack of perspective passion but I think we’re lucky to have a sport and teams on this island that provoke this kind of reaction. In any form of entertainment, the biggest enemy is apathy and whatever happens this Saturday, people will be Up For It and after the year we’ve had, I think we all deserve to lose ourselves a little this weekend.
After this Saturday, we’ll get an idea of where Munster are, how we need to progress and what we’ll need to push ahead to possibly, hopefully, win a trophy. There’ll be analysis, reaction, copy to file and context.
Until then, perspective can wait for 80 minutes.
#SUAF
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