They do respect the referee though. Footballers could learn alot from Rugby players on that score and likewise the FL and the FA could learn alot from Rugby on how the game could be refed (ref'd?).
Funny that after all those years as a prop never had anyone bite me or stamp on me.
Then again never used to roll around like I had been shot when some one got close to me......
As apposed to rolling around on the floor clutching your face like you've just been punched by Mike Tyson when the reality is someone came within a few inches of you and you're play acting in the hope of gaining a penalty for nothing.
Ahh but that was only the once, erm sorry twice, wait no three times...
... so far.
What I don't understand about Rugby is why they don't have the "Magic Sponge Technology" that football has.
Sorry Tony, I'm going to have to shatter your belief of this particular myth. I've witnessed it - rugby player downing a pint of someone else's piss. Army rugby player admittedly. He did it faster than I could down a pint of water, let alone ale.
Then there were those marathon weekend NAAFI bar sessions in Germany in the 1980's. I'll never forget the time someone suggested we play 'freckles'. But that's another story.
A heady combination of solider and a Rugby player. That explains it. As for the freckles game a couple of my cousin's that I grew up with were squaddies. I think I know that story already, yuk.
The banter tends to be with the guy in the seat next to you rather than the mob a few hundred yards away.
Problem is if your not next to them there is very little banter at all. Having been to twickenham for eng v aus very little banter tho does generate an atmosphere - you would 90k people would- strange experience in all