Another Roses, another York loss.
The question as ever remains, why can’t York string together enough wins to take them to victory?
The answer, however, does not lie in lack of talent, nor can it solely be attributed to sub- par facilities. The answer truly lies in the moments.
Watching the 3s rugby for both the women and the men provides a beautiful example of this.
Both games were essentially dead rubbers in the grand scheme of Roses scoring, contributing zero points to the overall tally. However, both had moments of brilliant spectacle and skill that deserve more recognition than simply the pleasure of playing at Roses.
In the Women’s game, the Lancaster fullback ran in 7 tries and kicked 8 conversions, a moment that should go down in Roses folklore. But, despite this phenomenal individual achievement it means nothing to the overall tally.
Likewise in the men’s game, a gritty hard fought affair, the replacement fullback, number 22, provided many moments of inspiration to his team including a match winning try. Furthermore, York may have discovered a new personality, when the number 8 after scoring the open wing try ran the length of the pitch with his fingers to his neck, clearly believing himself to be the second coming of Henry Pollock (thankfully karma got him back with a yellow card in the second half).
Despite the hilarity of the gesture these are the types of moments that deserve more than just a few heckles or cheers. These “fringe” games should be given more recognition by contributing something to the Roses score. Their effort or dedication is no lesser to those in the 1st or 2nd teams, with teams from York and Lancaster implementing drinking bans for all levels alongside increased training regimes and individual preparation.
While it makes sense, somewhat, to reward the teams of the best ability with more points, that does not mean that teams of lower ability, but no less determination, should be rewarded nothing.
According to the Official Roses constitution this occurs due to otherwise creating an imbalance in the points weighting of a certain sport. This seems, however, to forget the fact that the very reason that there are 3s in rugby is because more people play rugby, than competitively climb or play handball for example. While we should be encouraging increased grassroots involvement in lesser known or underrepresented sports that to me is not what Roses is about. Of course we should celebrate these sports with the same enthusiasm and passion and if the grassroots involvement rises then we can have handball 3s or 4s even, but the talent is there for rugby and other sports like it now.
Roses is, and should be, a celebration of sporting talent and if you have 3 teams of talented rugby players then reward the talent with points. Furthermore, the point that the constitution is trying to make about increased representation falls on its face by the very fact that some sports play for no points at all.
Now would this help York’s chances of success. Honestly, probably not. But it would give credit to the athletes that are competing, and would reward their achievements.
If this were the case, then moments like the 7 try spree would matter so much more to so many more people.