Opinion: Climate activists in rugby and sport deserve support, not hate
Speaking after his team’s painful loss in the Gallagher Premiership final on Saturday, Sale Sharks boss Alex Sanderson was asked about his views on climate activism. Not an area of expertise, he nonetheless had some thoughts.
His team eventually lost by 10 points, but the score was 6-6 when two Just Stop Oil protesters ran onto the field wearing orange shirts, waved their conspicuously skinny arms in the air, and set off orange powder bombs.
Play resumed a few minutes later when they were carried from the field. Sale’s Tom Curry did some of the lifting himself. “I don’t understand why it did happen,” Sanderson said.
And though he conceded that, as head coach of a Premiership team, he couldn’t “throttle” the protesters himself, he did blame them for creating “a break in the game” from which Saracens took the lead through a penalty try that also cost Sale a yellow card.
Let’s take Sanderson at his word. Maybe the answers are not so obvious to those deeply immersed in rugby matters. So for those unfamiliar with the motivations behind last Saturday’s unexpected intermission, here is a two-pronged response:
The first reason why Sam Johnson, a 40-year-old construction worker from Essex, and Dr Patrick Hart, a 37-year-old GP from Bristol, disrupted the game is that the planet is becoming increasingly uninhabitable.
That is a fact. Some may argue against the overwhelming science, but there are also those who believe that the earth is flat. A column on a rugby website has as much chance of convincing them that we live on a globe as it does swaying the opinion of climate deniers. There is no point in attempting to do that here.
Instead, the conversation worth having concerns the merit of disruption at sports events. Is it the right way to draw attention to a cause? Can it ever be widely accepted by the public? Does it work? Is it necessary?
Right and wrong are subjective terms. But if you draw a moral line in the sand here, then you are obligated to suggest another way to help accelerate the discourse around the climate emergency.
Whatever you propose, eco-warriors, as these people have been branded, have tried it already. The activists who are gluing themselves to famous artworks or walking slowly on the road are fighting the same fight as lawyers, CEOs and NGOs. But it’s a fight we are collectively losing and fringe elements of any movement will always grab headlines. In a way that is why they exist.
Last week, the oil company Shell had its annual shareholder meeting in London disrupted by protestors who stood up and began singing, “Go to hell, Shell” to the tune of Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles. Did you notice?
Perhaps you did. But there are many people who were at Twickenham last weekend or watching the broadcast at home who might have missed this action directed at those responsible for the mess.
The point is that sport is unrivalled in its ability to project a message. For whatever reason, sport is the most ubiquitously followed cultural pillar in our world today. Pick up a random newspaper in London, Lahore, Lusaka, or Los Angeles and flip to the back page. It’s not likely you will be reading a story about music, the arts, or gardening.
This torchlit stage is an enticing platform for activists and it has been well-used in the past. Emily Davison’s protest at the 1913 Epsom Derby, which cost her her life when she was struck by King George V’s horse, was the first iconic melding of sport and disruptive political protest.
Women in Britain would have eventually won the right to vote, but this incident accelerated the movement and reminded the ruler of the realm that half his subjects were being treated as second-class citizens.
Davison received hate mail while dying in hospital for four days, but history has since found Davison on the right side of history. Those who penned vengeful letters, no doubt espousing the claim that sports and politics shouldn’t mix, now look backwards in their beliefs.
So too do the defenders of apartheid in South Africa who booed when protestors stormed rugby fields in Britain and Ireland in 1969 and 1970, as well as in New Zealand in 1981. For these people, 80 minutes of sport was more important than justice. They had drawn up a hierarchy of needs and placed tries and tackles above equality and freedom from oppression.
The Springboks’ rebel tour, which the 1981 series in New Zealand has been dubbed, is a shameful blot on the sport’s heritage. The 350 people who tore down a perimeter fence at Rugby Park in Hamilton, as well as the pilots who dropped flour bombs in Auckland, should be revered as heroes.
What they did helped thrust a largely ignored conversation into homes that wouldn’t have had them otherwise. They ran with the anti-apartheid slogan that there should be no normal sport in an abnormal society and their actions played a direct role in the dismantling of a repressive South African regime.
Scientists have proved that our society today is not normal. Natural disasters which have been a constant throughout human history will increase in frequency and intensity in our lifetime. A projected 1.2billion people will be displaced around the world as a result of floods and droughts and storms by 2050. That is in 27 years’ time. The Springboks’ World Cup win in 1995 was 28 years ago.
We are hurtling towards catastrophe. Our future is at stake. World Rugby launched a new environmental sustainability plan last year aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2040, but more needs to be done.
Five former World Cup hosts – Japan, Australia, South Africa, the UK, and France – are among the top 20 carbon-emitting countries in the world. Activism on a rugby field by fans or outspoken players might seem insignificant, but doing nothing simply isn’t an option.
So rather than hurl abuse and overpriced beer at those prepared to go to prison in order to amplify this life-and-death struggle, take a moment and reflect on what is really at stake here.
A few minutes of entertainment? Or collective support for reform in order to persevere life on this planet? If you subscribe to rugby’s vaunted values, there is only one acceptable answer.
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments