Play to Win

I read something this week that I found deeply strange. Apparently a junior rugby tournament is to be held where there will be no winners and no losers. No scoring and non-competitive. Everyone is equally prized just for turning up. I know that this has happened in school sports days and the like for years but it still strikes me as being wrong. Very wrong indeed.

Because this tournament is going even further in that. Should one team be markedly better than the other and have a stand-out star player, then the recommendation is that that player should be removed from the stronger side and made to play on the weaker team. Not that we know which the best team is because we won't be scoring, remember? Nor will we know who the really good player is because they've all been told that it's not a competition and they're only playing for fun. Everyone is equal.

This, apparently, makes the game fairer, doesn't it?

Doesn't it?

Is it fair on the kid who's worked hard on their abilities and learned their tactics to be told that those who have sat on their backsides in front of a Playstation will get the same recognition?

Is it fair on those who aren't as good to be artificially raised to a position of equality that they cannot - and possibly don't wish to - keep up?

Is it fair on all of them to be taught that there are no winners and no losers in preparation for a life where there most assuredly are in almost all the important aspects?

Is it fair that I receive the same amount of payment from my publisher as D*n Br**n does even though my sales are the minutest fraction of his? Of course not. It would be laughable to suggest so and the the lawsuit-loving Mr Br**n would have me in the dock quicker than you can say 'risible plagiaristic page-turner'. Allegedly.

And quite right he would be too. Above all else these children who are being so misled by their well-meaning rugby teachers will know for themselves who's best and who's worse. You can bet your house that they'll be keeping score, as any right-minded sportsperson should. And, sadly, the better ones will crow about their unrecognised victory to those who wouldn't-have-scored-so-many-points-had-we-been-keeping-score. That's how we learn that winning is better than losing.

Life's not fair. All you can do is work hard, be your very best at the things you can and live with the other stuff.

Which is why I haven't played rugby since I was a boy.

© Shaun Finnie 2014