Rugby—new red threat?

Press, 1 December 1978, Page 12

Rugby—new red threat?

From the “Economist,” London

The Soviet Union is on the way to becoming a world power — in rugby. Its ■ young team lost its first-ever rugby international against France in Toulouse on Noi vember 11. by 29 points to : 7. But the Soviet players ' left an excellent impression all round, and did well considering they had arrived in Toulouse only two days before The world may 'have failed ; to notice, but rugby has become the fastest-growing sport in the Soviet Union. There are some 30.000 players in about 220 clubs throughout the country, with 16 teams plaving in the Soviet rugby league Rugby was introduced to

p r e-revolutionary Russia back in the 1880 s, ahead of soccer. But Tsarist police got the sport banned as “likely to incite a riot.” Russia's communist rulers after 1917 kept on the ban, though the sport was not without its defenders. Anatoli Lunacharsky, Lenin’s first Minister of Education and Culture, thought rugby a “great game for strength and toughness as well as sense of fair play.” Rugby came back in the 1950 s after Soviet students saw two Welsh teams playing it at the world youth festival in Moscow in 1954. The students had a go themselves. and soon the Soviet Air Force took the game

under its wing. The Moscow ’ Aviation Institute became a major rugby centre. I The Georgians seem to have a particular knack for ; rugby, a reflection, perhaps, . of their pugnacious spirit. : But Georgia’s warm climate, and the plentiful grass that ; goes with it, may also have i something to do with it. ’ The ground in much of i the rest of the Soviet Union ; is frozen for a good part of the year, and rugby is ■ played only in the summer. ; The Government has apparently decided that - rugby is a suitable leisure activity for Soviet citizens - after all. It may even be t useful as therapy to relieve i frustration and aggression.