Rugby World Cup

[Wilson]

So, I'm a big rugby fan, used to play winger back in the day, and I was listening to the World Cup online early Sat. morining U.S. time. Congrats to England! It was one hell of a game!! Finishing in the last seven seconds of over-time! The question I have to offer, that maybe a more informed person will know, is why did the English crowd sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" at the end? I thought that was an old southern U.S. spiritual? At any rate it was a great game, hats off to Australia too!, and I was drinking my first brew, a North American Amber. It turned out great! Now I've got too many damn people wanting some of it. Anyway...cheers!

[studentofbeer]

google wasn't too helpful, but i did learn that yes, it is an american spiritual, but it somehow is the almost official english rugby team theme song. lots of swing low sweet chariot rugby t-shirts, ring tones for your celly, and even anti-england rugby team propaganda posters (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/9910/c__images_rwc.jpg) that reference it. So i still have no idea why, but it is.

[hopjack13]

i never thought of it as a spititual song but i guess it would be , african americans used to sing it in the slave days among others like jimmy crack corn. which brings me to an interesting ???
if jimmy cracks corn, and nobody cares, why'd they write a song about it?

[Wilson]

those crazy Brits! ;) Pretty interesting though. Nice poster! Its a New Zealand All Blacks (their national team) Poster. Funny that they used another American icon, Rosie the Riveter.

[mike.reece]

dear wilson.
i used to play in the front row.
just to let you know that jonny wilkinson got the BBC sports personality of the year. And the team got the team of the year award.

[Wilson]

Thanks for the info, all this talk about Rugby has got me back out on the pitch for a little B side fun. Plus, we all drink lots of beer afterwards!

[fretlessman71]

Hey... who saw the last play of the New Orleans Saints and the Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday? 'Twas a little reminder for us American Football fans that Rugby is where we got our sport from... :)

[Wilson]

Yeah, that was great! I wonder if they practice something like that. Too bad the kicker missed the field goal.

[hopjack13]

i missed that one....i miss a lot of football theses days, i did take the kids to see the lord of the rings though.:D

[Martyartie]

Swing low, sweet chariot was apparently first used by English rugby supporters when a black England player, Chris Oti scored a hat trick of tries (is that an expression used in the US? Three tries in one game, anyway ...) during the England v Ireland at Twickenham, the English rugby team's home ground in London, on March 18, 1988 and the supporters at the match spontaneously burst into, it is claimed the only song they knew that had anything to do with black people ... it was a slave runaway song and negro spiritual written in 1866 by Henry Thacker Burleigh, whose grandfather had been a slave, and it was known to the fans because it was one of the songs sung by English rugby players and supporters at after-match celebrations in the clubhouse, always to the accompaniment of some very rude gestures (work it out for yourselves ...) long before it became associated with the England team.

Just to get the beery link in, Marston's, the Burton upon Trent brewer, has a bottled beer out to celebrate the world cup victory called Sweet Chariot ...

[Wilson]

Hey thanks Marty, that really is a pretty cool story. Funny how traditions are started. Let us know how the Sweet Chariot turns out!