I like drummers at rugby matches. Up to a point. They are useful before the match to get the crowd going. This was highlighted successfully in Thomond Park, where the Munster Branch deployed drummers on the night of the match against the All-Blacks. There were drummers and deer, and they all knew their place. To drum before the match and at half time. Not during the match.

Which brings me to the Croke Park Drummers. Whilst I had tickets for the French game, I was away skiing and so didn’t get to Croke Park for that encounter. The match against England was my first game there since the Autumn Internationals. I can’t recall drummers at the Autumn Internationals, had there been drummers like the idiot drummers in Croke Park last saturday, I am sure I would have remembered them.

The drummers last weekend were complete idiots. Ronan O’Gara had lined up his ball for a penalty kick at goal and was moving towards it to strike and these idiots think that is a time to be drumming? What is the point of silencing a crowd at a rugby match out of courtesy to a kicker if you are going to have some eejits banging a drum while a goal kicker is trying to concentrate? The first time the ringleader eejit drummer banged his drum to get the rest of his drumming pod (what is the collective noun for drummers?) going while O’Gara was kicking people in the crowd didn’t do anything, a bit like me they were probably mystified as to why the IRFU wouldn’t have informed these morons of the etiquette around place kicking. The second time O’Gara lined up a kick and the ringleader drumming eejit started again, everyone around me (so maybe the whole of Hill 16) shouted at him to SHUT UP! and he promptly stopped banging on his drum. At last we sighed. Silence from the drummers. The later kicks he remained similarly quiet. I was grateful for small mercies.

There was the Lambeg drum during the phases of play when Ireland were trying to break down the English defence. There was the drumming for a scrum, which upset the normal rugby type chanting of “Heave Ireland, Heave” and such time honoured chanting. These drummers do nothing to help the crowd. They upset the natural rythm and chanting associated with a rugby match. I think they even prevented the crowd from singing, because you couldn’t get a verse in edgeways with them. I think they detracted from the atmosphere during the match. They definitely gave me a headache. You either like drums or you don’t. Drumming by eejits who seemed not to know a vast deal about rugby is just daft.

Asking my father about the drummers after the match he seemed mystified. He was in the Hogan and unable to hear them. I was thankful for that small mercy, as it made me think maybe the players weren’t able to hear them the whole time either. Rugby is a simple game with simple songs and chants. No one likes the diddly eye music after Irleand score and no one around me seemed to like the drumming during the match. A compromise? No drumming when the ball is in play!

March 3, 2009 rugby