It’s finals season in Rugby League. In fact, yesterday, I watched my team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, lose in the semi-finals; I was heartbroken. Where I live in London, at
least in my circle, that carries little weight or meaning. While I grew up
watching Rabbitohs and my cousin play for the Wests Tigers,
most of my friends had never heard of NRL, let alone seen a game.
But sport, for many, is more than a just game, more than
entertainment. It is part of their heritage, a component of one's
identity.
I spent a week in the South of France with some family friends at the time of
the World Cup final. My friends are an English family who live in France and
had been religiously following the World Cup. For them it was both a
connection to England and an opportunity to exercise their patriotism for
France, their adopted home. They were astonished when I revealed
that despite growing up in England, I'd never watched a game of football/soccer.
So, my introduction was watching France play Croatia in the World Cup Final on
TV, sitting in a bar of the South of France with scores of locals. As introductions
go, I couldn't have picked a better time or place.
The atmosphere was buzzing. Everyone was adorned in red, white and blue. My
friend Edie kept telling me about how 1998, the last time France won the World
Cup, was a legendary year (she wasn't even born at the time). It's something
she had always heard about in Beziers (the town we were in) and she was
ecstatic at the thought that she would be able to live through another
legendary match, exactly twenty years later. The streets were lined with
fans and everyone was totally invested in the match. As the game
progressed, the pints were downed, the screams grew louder, and I started to
realise how important this was to the local people.
And of course, France won.
The celebrations after the win were wild. There were flares, boys piled in cars
painted in French colours, racing up and down, honking and screaming. Edie kept
running into people she knew - the whole community had turned out for the
event. Despite not knowing the sport or even the language, it was an
extraordinary experience and I had a bloody great night.
It got me thinking about our relationship with sport and identity.
Truthfully, when the world cup began, I resented it slightly. England did
surprisingly well, to the point where people would run down my street yelling
'It's coming home' - a reference to an England football song from days gone by
- and I'd groan. England were playing the night of my school prom and I rolled
my eyes when the boys left us to watch the match on the big screen. At the time
I thought it detracted from things that were important. But when I stood back
and thought about it more, I saw the power of sport to unite. Britain is a
nation deeply divided due to the decision to leave the European Union. But in
England, the success of the soccer team almost united everyone. Even though the
country is facing major uncertainty with views deeply divided, I saw how sport
could spark the very best type of patriotism. Of course, England lost in the
semi-final. I can't help but wonder if England had made it to the final, and
actually won, if it would have healed some of the deep wounds in wider
society.
So why wasn't I moved by it? Why was I not captured by the same spirit as the
rest of my friends and most in the country? It's because of my identity. I
was born and raised in London and I am a proud Brit but my father is Australian
and I also consider myself an Aussie, with a deep emotional attachment to the
country and its people. And for my family, ‘football’ translates to Rugby League.
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| My brother, myself and my dad at a Souths game in 2013 |
My great grand-father played for South Sydney between 1920 and 1930. His
brother and their sons played for the Rabbitohs at different levels over the
next thirty years. My grandfather was a life member of Souths and, when he was
buried, his coffin was draped in red and green. My father and his family grew
up in Alexandria, the Souths’ heartland. He played League as a boy and young
man but not professionally and not for Souths. He left Australia nearly three
decades ago yet he remains as passionate as ever about the club. He even worked
on the turnstiles at Redfern Oval as a young teenager and, despite having had an
amazing international career which has taken him all around the world,
remembers with awe the greats like Bobby McCarthy, Ron Coote, and Eric Simms. His
father and his uncle were part of one of the rescue efforts when Souths were in
trouble in the seventies, well before Russel Crowe bought the club and brought
to it the professionalism and success that it enjoys today. I am told that if
you search South Sydney archives for the name ‘Lawrence’ it will appear more
than any other surname on the playing roster. I can’t confirm this, but it is a
great story and it is an attachment of which I’m proud.
Watching Rugby League, for me, is a lot about connecting with my
heritage. I am so grateful to have grown up in London and I’m a London girl at
heart but my Aussie roots and Rugby League connections help define me. It is a
sport known for its courage, its toughness. When you get knocked down, you get
straight back up again and keep moving forward. My dad taught me about John
Sattler, the benchmark for toughness, and a man to this day he admires more
than anyone else. My dad taught me the metaphor of ‘broken play’ when talking
about how and when to flirt with boys. I was told to ‘play what’s in front of
me’ went I went into my final exams not as prepared as I wanted to be. When I
need to focus, I think, get to the try line. When I’m not sure which way to
turn and don’t want to over plan, I play ‘eyes up footy’. So Rugby League
informs not only who I am but the language of my life. It is also I love I
share with my father, who I would call not only my Dad but my best mate.
The Lawrence involvement in the professional sport lives on. My
cousin, Chris, is a veteran of Wests tigers (and had an outstanding year in
the second row). I had the thrill of watching him play for Australia at Wembley
when I was much younger with my Dad and my-then sports teacher, Mr Brown, an
Aussie and, unfortunately, a Cowboys supporter. My cousin Emma is now a
well-known Rugby League journalist, and has just joined Channel 10 as a senior
Rugby League reporter. So the Lawrence name still features in the world of Rugby
League.
