Whingeing Poms

[Quizmonster]

Does anyone agree that no Australian should ever again, anywhere, be permitted to utter the words: 'Whingeing Poms' without everyone within earshot falling to the ground, convulsed by helpless laughter? As a Scot, I have - like virtually every one of my compatriots - supported whichever team - even France! - was opposing England. On Saturday, for the first time ever, I was loudly in England's favour against Australia. Why? Have you ever known such an endless litany of whining - starting even before the first ball of the competition was struck - as we heard from so many Australians? People like David Campese - inspired player, brain-dead newspaper commentator - sports journalists who demanded that the points-scoring system should be changed, newspapers which issued voodoo-dolls of Wilkinson and a host of others moaned endlessly on and on and on. Before the match, I truly hoped the final score would be 3 - 0, as a result of just one drop-goal. Although there were other points scored, that really is what happened effectively in the end. Wonderful! I think I can almost certainly promise that I'll never again support England...but on this occasion I was more than pleased to do so. Well done!

[incitatus]

um-it was a fairly boring tournament of a minority sport. why are people getting worked up over it? admittedly some of the aussie press went a bit loopy but look what appears in the sun whenevr the round-ball kickers play the germans. imho the world should grow up, the people who play the sports should get on and play them in a sportsmanlike manner and anyone who likes supporting or spectating at these events should be taken to the psychiatrist and asked why they havent got something more constructive to do.

[Quizmonster]

My question wasn't really about sport, I, but about mantra-style language-usage which - by chance on this occasion - found itself highlighted by a sporting occasion. I could as easily have asked why people continue to call football "the beautiful game" given the endless uglinesses it reveals to its watchers week after week. Rugby Union is the only game/sport which I personally have any interest in. No more inane, surely, than going to the cinema, listening to music or indulging in any other pastime. So, let me ask again...do you think it's OK for Aussies to refer to Whingeing Poms or not? (I'll just bet, too, that you do things that the rest of us might think worthy of psychiatric treatment!)

[treaclefight]

good point quizzie, as an englishwoman, i think i might have supported even the scots if they'd played australia by the end of that anti-pommie campaign. however i wont be making a habit of it. thankyou for your gracious comments. :-)

[treaclefight]

it made our tabloids look quite reserved didnt it, never thought id say that

[gilf]

Totally agree with you QM. I think the English press are just as bad, but its the hypocrisy of it, also add to that the way their prime minister was dishing out the medals which was pretty funny really, but a little ungracious. Also I think the Eddie Jones comments about England being the best team...by one minute where a serious case of sour grapes (yes technically he's correct but what about our No 1 ranking and wins over the last year). The English press have made little of the fact the SA ref gave some dubious decisions (both ways I hasten to add). The only preson who really came out of it with any credit was George Gregan who was humble and gracious in defeat. To be honest I'm pretty indifferent when it comes to the other home nations but I'd always support them over Australia. The rules are the rules, you just cant go changing them because people find a way to be come successfull using them, have we ever suggested they should do away with 6's in cricket just because Australian are so much better than anybody else.

[sft42]

Quizzy you're excommunicated.....We are after all talking about the country here who constantly call for the "Dunkirk spirit" every time their team plays and then gets thumped in the real world cup by Germany, or alternately turns a game against Argentina into another Falklands war....the country who for some unknown reason seem to think that because they had a hand in the origins of some of these sports that this gives them a god given right to be good at them...something their past performances in the last thirty years or so shows all too clearly not to be the case (this minority sprot win aside)......Tennis? Football? Cricket? Tell me this the rest of you whingeing poms left out there how does it feel to know that rather than being part of a big sporting community out there in the world, the rest of the world view you with suspicious and hates seeing your fans roll up eh? Never mind out with the skinhead chant...ingerland ingerland...let's go and mug a few innocent locals eh? ingerland ingerland.......ah you have to laugh don't you.

[incitatus]

qm- due to working two jobs, organising a wedding, organising a major orthopedic operation and ensuing transport problems, proofreading 4 theses and having 2 nephews and 2 neices Im not allowed to have passtimes. anyway by definition anything i would choose to do would b perfectly rational (OED definition: Rational 1) logical or well thought out 2) incitatus). I tend to agree with sft. as far as i can see this is the australian media behaving like the british media. and suddenly we dont like it when its done to us.

[gilf]

I dont think I heard anybody complain about the Australian press yes we talked about it but I dont for a second think we actually took it seriously. I totally agree that the English tabloid press are as bad (i'd say worse but it would contradict my previous post :) ). I think sft42 you really need to take a look at yourself, you say the english are not welcomed around the world which I would sadly say is proberbly true, but I think a 20-30 minute look around this web site would paint a very bad picture of you Scots. Over the last few weeks I've seen many posts which border on racist but because its directed at the English thats OK. Its a sad sign that the other British Nations cannot celebrate the success of one of its neighbours and in fact can only ever find time to belittle the achievements of others. In fact I've become a little bit tired of the whole thing, I think this will be my last vist to this site as it seems to have become more of a chat room.

[bobbobley]

ah, well, one more englishman down then, gilf...

running away from the comments won't make them any less true you know - the majority of the world ridicules the "typical" english fan for their oh so childish and predictable behaviour

[treaclefight]

and of course sft, the scots dont turn even a simple discussion on the terminology used in aussie newspapers into the last hour of braveheart, do you dear. furthermore, im an england fan who has attended many sporting events and has never felt unwelcome (ok, long legs n big boobs make me more popular than the average england fan, but i stand by my point), you'd be happy too if you'd won :-D

[Quizmonster]

See 9 questions above this one. I'm trying out Incitatus's instructions, as offered there, re posting a response to a long question such as this one.

[Quizmonster]

Well, I'll be darned! Cheers, I.

[davver]

well incitatus, (this bold lark is becoming quite a fad now) I would have to question your assumptions that a) anyone who watches sport clearly has nothing better to do and is psychiatrically ill and b) that sport could take place to the same sort of degree if there were no spectators because they had all been carted off by the men in white coats. I don't think I need to elaborate on that, it's pretty self-evident that they're ridiculous ideas, and not vindicated by the fact that you apparently have an extremely busy life (although not too busy to spend time on answerbank.co.uk, I notice). Nice one England by the way, and I might point out that there were exactly no arrests made during the final and the night afterwards in Sydney. So it seems the fans were both welcome and well behaved. Thanks to Australia for providing an excellent World Cup and good opposition (thankfully not quite good enough) and an exciting final. Three cheers all round, and maybe this will help move rugby, a far more decent sport than football, more into the limelight.