Roses has been an incredible spectacle of passion, but is the line between passion and violence too often crossed?
Roses has seen great sporting achievements and, rather predictably, another Lancaster victory confirmed a day early. While this was an excellent first two days of high quality competition it was marred by two instances of violence, raising concerns over player safety.
First, there was the punch thrown on the lacrosse pitch, with a Lancaster player evidently taking offence to something said. This caused a lengthy break in play with the officials attempting to regain some level of civility.
Then, at the Men’s Rugby 2s game a flare was thrown from a supporting player narrowly missing the Lancaster Team. One observer said it was thrown “directly at” the Lancaster Team while others were convinced that the direction the flare had been thrown was an accident.
Nevertheless, both these incidents highlight the ugly side of Roses, and more generally, the double edged nature of competitive rivalry. The need to tread this line has for the most part been respected in healthy competition. The Basketball for both the men’s and women’s was proof that an electric atmosphere can be found without leading to violence, even with obvious animosity between groups of supporters.
The issue is not with rivalries or competition rather the culture in lacrosse and Men’s rugby seem to ensure some violence will always occur. Lacrosse as a wider sport is know as particularly violent, with fights often breaking out. If this is the culture around the sport then it’s no wonder that in such a fierce rivalry like Roses tensions boil over.
Likewise, Men’s Rugby’s boisterous culture, particularly when mixed with copious amounts of alcohol, more often than not leads to stupid acts of violence. This same culture can lead to great atmospheres but it must be channelled in such a way that the sport does not erupt into chaos.
Roses does not have a violence problem, despite what was witnessed, but rather lacrosse and rugby have culture issues that need to be addressed more broadly, not destroyed but tempered.
There has been so many more good moments than ugly incidents, and this should be the focus of the conversation, rather than a small minority losing their heads for a few minutes.