Re: What is it about Rugby Lea...

[WiganWarrior]

Well i hated playing it in school, both my mum and dad are from liverpool not into rugby at all. I started going about 11 when we got free tickets through school my mates dad used to take me, then stopped going. Always kept an eye on them watched them on the tv and then i convinced my now ex girlfriend to get into it so i had someone to go with. so victim of circumstance lol

[mike binder]

Here goes then you may not beleive this but this is how i was introduced to rugby.
As a young wiper snapper i was quite a good football player tipped to go all the way as 1 report in the wep as i won a competition at butlins footballer of the year any way i was an avid latics fan (sorry but yes i was )dont know what year it was but we were out round wigan having a few beers with my mates one saturday afternoon .i would of been about 18 so its about 20 years ago.as we were having a drink we bumped in to 1 of our mates brendan barr who went on to have a smalll bit carrea with wigan said he had a few tickets spare for gb vs new zealand at central park,did we fancy going 2is there a bar there " i said yes ofcourse was his reply .
So off we went to watch gb vs nz never been to a gane b4 but whoooooooo whats this wa=hat have i been missing here ,great athmosphere great crowd and rugby what a game this is.
Since that day didnt miss many games at wigan until we moved to the jjb ,not saying i boycotted them but had a son and didnt really get time with work and looking after him.
But now hes into rugby and for about the last 6-7 seasons got back into full swing and loving every minute of it.
Now the story dosnt end there me and daniel were now season ticket holders and he got some free tickets from school ,seeing as we couldnt use them the wife said well come with you ,this was in my south stand days (lol) so allong they came remember very well ,we were playing warrington and the barmy army from the wire were on form dum dum dum did di=um di dum Wire was the call all the way through the matchOur next game was against salford i think so the wife and rebecca got free tickets again ,in the south stand but this game the wigan drummers were on for m dum dum dum di dum dum dum they went ,with little rebecca standing up in the middle of us all shouting wire ,as she remembered the week b4 .Well eveyone around us cracked off laughing.
Now we are all season tickets holders in theeast stand and very rare we miss a game home and away ,even turn up t the challenge cup final and the grand final even if wiganm are not there ,because we love the sport so much and love doing something together as a family because you dont get much time to do anything else together.sorry for going on a little but hey WHAT A GAME

[mike binder]

mike binder posted:
Here goes then you may not beleive this but this is how i was introduced to rugby.
As a young wiper snapper i was quite a good football player tipped to go all the way as 1 report in the wep as i won a competition at butlins footballer of the year any way i was an avid latics fan (sorry but yes i was )dont know what year it was but we were out round wigan having a few beers with my mates one saturday afternoon .i would of been about 18 so its about 20 years ago.as we were having a drink we bumped in to 1 of our mates brendan barr who went on to have a smalll bit carrea with wigan said he had a few tickets spare for gb vs new zealand at central park,did we fancy going 2is there a bar there " i said yes ofcourse was his reply .
So off we went to watch gb vs nz never been to a gane b4 but whoooooooo whats this wa=hat have i been missing here ,great athmosphere great crowd and rugby what a game this is.
Since that day didnt miss many games at wigan until we moved to the jjb ,not saying i boycotted them but had a son and didnt really get time with work and looking after him.
But now hes into rugby and for about the last 6-7 seasons got back into full swing and loving every minute of it.
Now the story dosnt end there me and daniel were now season ticket holders and he got some free tickets from school ,seeing as we couldnt use them the wife said well come with you ,this was in my south stand days (lol) so allong they came remember very well ,we were playing warrington and the barmy army from the wire were on form dum dum dum did di=um di dum Wire was the call all the way through the matchOur next game was against salford i think so the wife and rebecca got free tickets again ,in the south stand but this game the wigan drummers were on for m dum dum dum di dum dum dum they went ,with little rebecca standing up in the middle of us all shouting wire ,as she remembered the week b4 .Well eveyone around us cracked off laughing.
Now we are all season tickets holders in theeast stand and very rare we miss a game home and away ,even turn up t the challenge cup final and the grand final even if wiganm are not there ,because we love the sport so much and love doing something together as a family because you dont get much time to do anything else together.sorry for going on a little but hey WHAT A GAME

thats my longest post ever

[Mr Stu]

i support the warriors because i watched them on tv when i was 4 and supported them, since then, didn't support us until i was about 11, it was a shock to my dad and his cousins because they are salford fans, they tried converting ( still do) but i was already a warrior fan and will never change. i will be buying my first season ticket for next season and cant wait.

[DaveO]

My Dad was a keen RL player (and RU player, played for Plymouth and the Army when stationed down there years ago)and knew many of the former Wigan greats personally having gown up with them.

I sort of picked it up from him and have very dim memories of him watching RL on Grandstand with my Dad with Eddie Waring commentating. That was in fact almost the end of me and RL as I could not stand Warings voice!

When I lived down in London (I was down there for 12 years) it coincided with Wembley being Wigan's alternate home ground so RL was a link to home with family coming down for the finals. I had been to watch Wigan before going down there and really it never occured to me to support any other team as Wigan was the home town.

Used to travel up for bank holiday derbies at the JJB and so on and once back up here got myself a season ticket at CP and am pleased to say my son saw some games there before we moved out.

As to the game itself I have always thought it was a very simple direct game that you could either keep simple from a fans point of view so was easy for people to understand or you could delve into the tactics and watch for set moves and so on.

I also liked the way the game didn't rely on the refs ignoring half the rules to get a flowing game going unlike RU which seemed a complete mystery to me as to when or if a ref would blow up.

Unfortunatly I think RL has gone a bit that way itself since Cummings has been re-inventing the rules to cover up the errors of his officials (que Rob the refs champion ) but its too late as I am addicted.

Dave

[stacey c]

I started watching wigan about 18 years ago (i still tell people im young- ish) when we got free tickets from school. Loved the atmosphere more than the game for the first match as i didnt have a clue what the game was about :conf:
I went home, asked around, watched videos and went to the next game converted!
My mum was born in snake helens and although all of her family are stains fans she never bothered about the game, dad watched it on tv but never went to a game.
I talked as many friends into the rugby as i could so that i had somebody to go with every week.
Had a short spell of not going to games when i had my first child and thought wot the hell she can come with me
Got tickets for a game off a friend at the jjb and got my mum and niece o come with us. They loved it straight away and havent missed a handful of games since

Just realised we were all introduced by freebies
You know what they say?
The best things in life are free!!!!

[jaws1]

I was born under the shadows of Springfield Park and used to play in the back stand there .
Ist game Central Park 1955 freebie from school although it only cost a tanner in the hen pen (two and a half pence)then .Walked it from Pemberton to Wigan and back so i could have a penny spanish .
Loved every minute of it and been an avid fan of Rugby League ever since .Was on Central Park 1959 against Saints with 47,747 with my dad could not move even to go to the toilet there was a river of urine flowing down the kop men were having a pee where they stood .Funny you can remember things like this and cant remember yesterday.All my school days never missed a match at home ,if Wigan were playing away and Leigh was at home went to watch with my mates as they gave scores from other matches over the tannoy.When i finished my school day it was home did my home work tea and then on to the field playing rugby with the men my nick name was Vollenhoven as they could not catch me .
Been an avid Rugby/Wigan fan ever since notice i put Rugby first as i love the game played in true spirit.Reading all the posts here a lot have come from freebies ,do they still give tickets free out at schools??

[moffsta]

years and years ago i remember my dad watching rugby league on tv with the old "its an up and under" coming from eddie wearing and that quote will never leave me. my dad as a young bloke, had trials for believe it or not.....St helens. he used to live on Freckleton rd in stains with my gran and grandad and my grandad used to be management at st helens glass. My mum met my dad throught the police force and my mum also moved to stains. she tells me of stories about how, when my dad played golf, she used to caddy for spud murphy and her favourite players were tommy van vol and lenny killeen.
now, judging by this you'd think i'd turn out to be a stains fan wouldn't you?
well...... in the early 90's i was in a rock band and every so often we'd play gigs in wigan as 2 of the band members came from there.
one friday evening we played at "the steppes" pub and when positioning my amplification to where i needed to put it i walked infront of the big tv screen and a voice called out "OI! GEET OWT WAY "
once i'd moved out the way i sat and i watched the game myself and from that moment on i got hooked.
told my mother later that evening that yeah the gig went well but wigan were brilliant to watch lol
she said " you can't support wigan , you're grandad would turn in his grave"
well it looks now like my grandad will be doing somersaults and waiting for me up there to give me a right roasting.
1st game i went to was with my mum at knobsley rd 2000 and we whooped their ass big time.
watched on tv then until 2005 when my bro, his girlfriend, myself and the lovely rachel(my girlfriend) decided to go along to the JJB for a few games. went the majority of home and even made it to some away ones too. now we are all season ticket holders and even my mum comes along to the odd game or three ( mainly the stains games)but i've never felt mor passionate about a sport in my life as i have rugby league. LOVIN IT BIG TIME

[Nine]

I was born to it, it's in my blood and in my soul. By the time Dad took me to my first game when I was 3 I aready knew all about the game (I thought! ) and knew the players' names. I adored Billy Boston then, and still do.

I have made some great friends through rugby, converted my husband from soccer (he's a qualified rugby league coach now) and was lucky/unlucky enough to live in New Zealand through our great era in the late 80s/early 90s, which at least meant that while I couldn't attend games in person I did get to see them a lot on Sky.

To me, the sport itself really is The Greatest Game, and its people are for the most part wonderful, genuine and decent.

We're also involved in junior rugby at an amateur club, so it's 12-month-a-year non-stop rugby for us! To anyone who doesn't watch amateur rugby in the winter - get yourself down to your nearest club for a fix. The skill levels and fitness may not be the same as super league but you can't knock the commitment and passion - and it costs nowt!

[#1 warrior princess]

I was brought up in Wigan and was brought up with rugby and Wigan by my dad who was very active at St Pat's. I was a season ticket holder and used to work in the players bar at Central Park.

I moved to Portsmouth 11 years ago to go to uni and didn't watch it anymore, until this season when I got Skysports. Got completely hooked again and try as much as possible to get to as many games as I can.