Commonspace Columnist Ian Dunn says the petulant reaction to last Sunday’s rugby defeat was the reflection of a culture of complaint
I RAGED. I cursed. I put my head in my hands, I had a sharp stabbing pain in my left arm that made me briefly suspect I was having a heart attack.
I did not take Sunday’s defeat of Scotland by Australia in the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup well. As a dedicated follower of the Scottish rugby team, through thin and thin, I was gutted.
For Scotland to have played so well for so long, yet have it snatched away at the end was heartbreaking. And then I got over it.
I didn’t go online and swear at strangers because I am not a child. I didn’t whine on and on about the referee because I’m not a child.
I didn’t go online and swear at strangers because I am not a child. I didn’t whine on and on about the referee because I’m not a child. And I did not dream up a fantasy that it was all down to a vast anti-Scottish conspiracy because I’m not, are you getting this yet, a child.
Yes the referee had a bad game, it happens. Rugby is a vastly complex, technical sport. It’s very difficult to referee. Scotland got the worst of it. The underdog usually does because of subconscious bias on the part of the referee. It’s one of the hidden penalties of being continually bad at a sport for a long time.
All that said, it wouldn’t have mattered if the Scots had had the nous to close the game out by throwing the line out short. Life is defined by mistakes more than malevolence and that is definitely the case here.
Later, I took a great deal of pride in Scotland’s performance. For the first time in many years they played at the highest level for 80 minutes. They were superb. They are a young team, who will only improve for having gone through that experience.
And I did not dream up a fantasy that it was all down to a vast anti-Scottish conspiracy because I’m not, are you getting this yet, a child.
Excitingly, Scotland seems to have been the first of the Six Nations teams to realise that power isn’t enough any more. It was a big part of why they came closest to the semi finals of the northern hemisphere sides.
Scotland’s next competitive game is against England at Murrayfield. For the first time in a long time I relish it.
Sunday was a dark old day, but the future is bright. Sometimes you’re best isn’t quite good enough. You take a bad break. So you learn from it, improve, go on.
For many modern Scots apparently that’s not an option. They’d much rather whinge on about how unfair life is, how persecuted Scotland is and blah, blah, blah.
This is not restricted to rugby. The national noise of Scotland these days is a querulous, self-pitying whine about the unfairness of everything.
Whether it be unionists horrified, shrieking about a non-existent SNP one party state or nationalists mewling frantically about supposed media bias, Scotland is becoming a nation of self-indulgent complainers.
Whether it be unionists horrified, shrieking about a non-existent SNP one party state or nationalists mewling frantically about supposed media bias, Scotland is becoming a nation of self-indulgent complainers.
It’s hard to ignore the suspicion that this wave of whining has risen in the aftermath of the independence referendum. It’s no small irony that that supremely divisive contest has ended up uniting so many Scots as megaphones of moaning misery.
Picture courtesy of Neil Winton