Throughout the extended Autumn International season, international rugby teams marked the increased focus on social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement with a minute’s pre-match silence prior to the anthems.
Before the start of the game between Wales and Ireland in Cardiff on Sunday, the silence was again observed. No player kneeled, as none did during the entire autumn season – at least in the many games I saw – and it seems to have provoked the ire of absolutely no-one.
#AsOne pic.twitter.com/HcgI8SRgiw
— Jean Johansson (@JeanJohansson) February 7, 2021
Why then, the apparent furore over some Scotland players not taking a knee at Twickenham on Saturday?
The sole curiosity of it, to this observer, is that four Scottish players chose to change tack by kneeling. Gregor Townsend, when questioned about on the BBC on Sunday, said this was a personal decision by them, and he “100% back our players on that”.
Social media-provoked controversy
Some England players also chose not to kneel, notably Billy Vunipola and Courtney Lawes, two players of colour (Vunipola says he doesn’t kneel because BLM activists “attacked churches and burned bibles”, which is utterly spurious, but that’s another matter).
The reaction down south seems to be utter disinterest.
So why this in Scotland? It seems a few social media posts is enough to provoke a controversy, to have some Scottish players ludicrously described as racist, and for the inevitable but tired false equivalencies about what would happen in football to be raised.
World Rugby set the silence for international teams in quite proper cognisance of what happened around the world last summer. There is no mandatory requirement to kneel, nor any moratorium against it.
Scottish Rugby released a statement saying the organisation “fully supports rugby’s on-going work to end discrimination and racism in our sport.
“This commitment has been expressed with a moment of reflection before every international match since the summer of 2020 and our players are free to demonstrate their support for this important issue in the way they see fit.”
I’m told there is no official line in football either, but kneeling appears to have become customary in that sport, and is practiced before every senior game.
Great. I’m sure that definitely means that football is marginally more anti-racist than rugby. But it’s most certainly not a defining mark between who is and is not racist.
I did wonder at the #TakeTheKnee stance of some of the players today #SixNationsRugby I don’t know what they had been advised to do @EnglandRugby @Scotlandteam I suspect this will kick off a storm when compared to footballers.
— John Beattie (@BBCJohnBeattie) February 6, 2021
Soccer’s customs and preferences are not every sports’, and they are not society’s either. The rugby players show their respects to the anti-racism message in silence, and they can kneel if they want to.
Sorry if that confuses people. But it’s actually a perfectly acceptable example of personal choice on a matter of conscience.