As chair of Gloucester Rugby’s official fanclub, Bob Rumble has always loved away games at Bath – or, “that ghastly little stadium down the road from Bristol”, as he likes to call the Rec. Thanks to the claustrophobic Pulteney Bridge steps, rival fans are literally rubbing shoulders before they even reach the famously compact ground. Then they get to spend 80 minutes seat-by-jowl with each other, and the “mickey-taking” – Rumble’s words – is intense.
“I never learn much about rugby from them,” Rumble jokes. “But I come away knowing an awful lot about Volvo cars and Ikea and PTA meetings.”
I thought of Rumble when I read that Premiership Rugby will be trialling “away ends” for supporters next month. The idea that separating out its fans is what rugby really wants or needs right now baffled me, which is why I called Rumble, who has spent decades in the Shed, Kingsholm’s famously vociferous stand. Rumble turns out to be as sceptical as me. “They’ve missed a trick,” he says when I call him. “They should have waited a couple of weeks and brought this out on April the first.”
The convivial atmosphere of a rugby ground – especially compared to the snarling intensity and intimidatory language on football terraces – is a big part of why I care for the game. But there are those who think rugby is too quiet. Take the Harlequins flanker Will Evans, who believes away sections are long overdue and can “grow the game massively”.
From his perspective, there is nothing better than a concentrated base of support during an away match, upping the noise levels and provoking the home fans to get louder too. “It’s like you end up playing in a cauldron, and players love that. I think sometimes a game can reflect the lack of atmosphere within a stadium, but where we’ve had big away support, the games have ended up being crazy.”
I hear his argument, although if the quality of club rugby is that dependent on crowd noise then no wonder it’s in trouble. But none of this is the real motivation for the trial, which is ultimately in service of the broadcasters: give them more bang, and they’ll give the sport more buck.
“The Premier League has a £6.7 billion TV rights deal over the next four years,” says Evans. “Companies do not pay those crazy figures for a quiet hum in the crowd. They want noise, they want passion, and at the moment you’re not getting that in rugby.”
Quins are one of a few teams – including Northampton and Saracens – whose supporters groups already block-book tickets to away games to create an away-fan section in the crowd. “We’ve been doing it for 15 years, so it’s not a new phenomenon,” says Phil Gibson, chair of the Quins Supporters’ Association.
He points out that the term “away end” is misleading – there’s no compulsion for away fans to sit in their designated section, and individuals are still free to buy tickets wherever they want. “People start envisaging stewards in hi-vis separating supporters who are abusing each other over a load of covered seats. And that is just never, ever going to happen in rugby.”
Brian Moore, a former hooker with an acute legal mind, raised justifiable concerns when this trial was first mooted last October. There are, he pointed out, strong sociological studies on tribal behaviours, and plenty of evidence of what happens when you stoke them in sport. Moore was particularly concerned about the loss of the current, largely accepting response to referee decisions – there are, after all, a lot more of them in rugby than football, and most deeply technical. “Rugby’s officials are under enough pressure, without adding … reflexive booing of every decision that goes against one side.”
What about the likelihood of an increase in player abuse? “I think you have to give rugby fans the benefit of the doubt,” says Evans, who believes that the sport is “starting way beyond” many others in terms of respect levels. “They are more than capable of policing themselves.”
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Perhaps that’s true, but it’s still curious that a sport that prides itself on being played in a non-hostile environment is actively seeking ways to give itself more “edge”. English cricket, by contrast, has just spent tens of millions of pounds on a new tournament no one asked for precisely to capture the kind of inclusive, family-centric scene rugby already has.
Maybe I’m just sceptical because there seems to be enough manufactured division and pointless yelling in the world right now. It’s why I feel sad at the direction of travel in women’s football. So many of the things we’ve been celebrating it for – sense of social purpose, family-friendly atmospheres – appear increasingly under threat. Abuse at grounds and training are already leading players to retreat from their fanbase. Will their answer, too, be segregated stands?
“We always say and we’re always proud as a women’s game that we’re very inclusive but somehow that is starting to slip away a bit,” Manchester City’s Vivianne Miedema said last week. “If we are so proud of the environment we’ve created, we need to be really, really careful in the next steps we’re making.” It sums up how I feel about the slippery slope of championing away sections in rugby. Sport has seen plenty of unintended consequences in its constant demand for growth.
For perspective and reassurance, I return to fans themselves. Gibson points out that the numbers are so small that the whole issue has become overblown. “I would guess when we go up to Leicester [for the trial game] we’ll probably have a group of 200 sat together and there’ll be another two or three hundred scattered around the park,” he says. “We’re not talking about segregation, we’re talking about choice.”
For Rumble, there’ll be a chance to join in the experiment at Stone X Stadium when Saracens take on Gloucester. “Let’s be candid, rugby’s been in a parlous state for a while. Is this the panacea? I don’t think so, but I wish them well.” In the meantime, he welcomes any and all away fans to come stand next to him in the Shed, and I think I might just take him up on it.