Italia - Nuova Zelanda
Amichevole di rugby - 14/11/09, Stadio Meazza - San Siro (MI)

On Saturday, yet another display of the stupidity of Italians took place in Milan.

A flock of 80,000 lobotomized sheep crowded in to witness a spectacle of which they could perhaps (to be optimistic) understand 1%. In other words, pretending to be different as a new form of conformity.

A record turnout that has no correlation with our sports culture nor is rooted in a broad movement of participants. Who the hell even sends their kids to play??? Or who has ever known one of these hominids who loves to push, grunt, and snort like a primordial boar eager to break its nose and have its ears reduced to parchment? Naturally, no one or almost no one, and it all stems only from media hype and fashion (which, like all trends, will pass) artificially created in sports magazines and beyond. And so, here come the shovelfuls of cheap rhetoric about the third half and the nobility of the players who hit each other but with respect, the notion that it is a poor sport for real men, the magic and sacredness of the Haka (if I were a true Maori, I’d be pissed seeing it performed in such an unworthy context), how orderly and civilized the (?) rugby people are, and with as many intolerable clichés as can be conceived.

So, may all 80,000 of them kindly go to hell, I hope the cold has sparked a glimmer of consciousness in their narrow and malleable minds, and that someone in a flash of clarity has finally asked themselves, "What the hell am I doing here?" And let's be honest: rugby is a huge pain in the ass. There is no spectacle in reaching the try (it’s just a man running past a line... wow, exciting!!!), there's only a slow conquest of territory through shoving, with very few allowances for individuality and technical prowess that doesn't involve mere brute force.

I know well that there are far worse displays of collective stupidity in the country that continues to vote for Silvio, and I understand that this should not come as a surprise. But I just wanted to stigmatize. I’ve vented. Now don't tell me you actually like Rugby, do you?