With the Rugby World Cup 2023 just a few days away, the atmosphere in France, the hosts, and around the world is building. Some great rugby and with it, will come great sportsmanship stories. A quick classy French sportsmanship story involving Ireland’s Brian O’Driscoll, leads to another French sportsmanship story which leads to a Maori All Blacks sportsmanship story around the same fallen hero.
French Class
Irish rugby hero, Brian O’Driscoll, played his 133rd and last game for Ireland against France in Paris in 2014. Both sides were playing to win the 6 Nations Championship. Final result, France: 20, Ireland: 22. Afterwards, while having a drink on the balcony at the post-match dinner, French player, Maxime Mermoz, took a selfie of himself and BOD. Seven or eight French players immediately pile into the photograph. #BOD was given a French rugby jersey with ‘O’Driscoll’ printed on the back – and signed by all of the French rugby team. In O’Driscoll’s own words – ‘it was a touch of class’.
French Kindness
Irish and Munster rugby fans, in particular, will never forget the kindness of French Racing Club back in 2016 when the tragic death of Munster coach Axel Foley hours before the game in Paris. Racing Club fans brought food and drink down to the thousands of stunned Munster fans outside the ground in Paris. When the match was rescheduled many months later, Racing wrote to Munster Rugby and insisted that all travelling Munster fans stayed with Racing Club families. Read the full story French Racing RFC Fans Open Their Homes To Munster Fans
Maori All Blacks Moment
When the Maori All Blacks visited Munster they took the breath away from every Munster fan with their pre-match gesture of respect, sadness and friendship. After their Haka, the captain, Ash Dixon, opened a Maori All Blacks shirt with AF on the back of it in honour of Axel Foley. He showed it to the Munster team. Laid the jersey on the ground. Stood up and bowed to the Munster team. Read the full story Magnificent Maori Gesture at Start of Munster Game
The 2023 Rugby World Cup is in France. May it be a great RWC with great games, great moments, great sportsmanship and great camaraderie. Tell us your story. Post a comment.
#RWC #RWC2023 #RugbyWorldCup #Sportsmanship
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Somewhere in this inspirational archive is the full story of the South African fan congratulating the Japanese fan who bursts into tears of joy. See photo above. They subsequently invited each other to come and visit their respective homes. They have done so and are now lifelong friends and full members of the brotherhood of rugby.
Enjoy browsing these and many other feel-good stories. Send them to someone you love. Send them to someone else who could do with a heart-warming story or two.
Tell us your story if you have one. Or just post a comment. Enjoy every moment.
Off to France tomorrow for the World Cup. Always a brilliant time with French fans who are truly passionate about their team. Thanks for the stories let’s hope we can bring back some more examples of sportsmanship as well as the trophy.
Good man James. Please do me a favour and send some nice photos of sportsmanship moments – particularly clearly visible opposition fans having fun (or opposition players shaking hands/embracing) – and I’ll add them to the blog post and credit you.
On a separate note – fingers crossed for the men in green – v tough group & SA’s 15 man pack (!). Hugely looking forward to Irl V Romania on Sat (not to mention the mouth-watering NZ v SA on Fri). Bring it on!
Great stories, I wasn’t aware of any of these! Looking forward to the World Cup, not much longer to wait now
It’s a veritable feast of rugby, Sophie. 🙂
Great tales. Great people. Here’s hoping for a great few weeks. Allez les Bleus!
Cheers Paddy. So looking forward to it all.
Lovely article Contrasts with all the negative stuff we read. Keep it up.
Thanks Weerapan – there is lots of great stuff out there – have a little rummage around the site – you can search by country or by sport (scroll down the right hand side).
Lovely article. Contrasts with all the negative stuff we read.
Really great stories. They really add to the enjoyment of the game. Keep them coming.
Getting really excited now.
Yes Stephen I expect some nice moments – if you spot anything – just add it as a comment. Many thanks.
Almost there! October 29, France v Ireland in the final. A repeat of 2014 and, for even more edge of the seat excitement, 2018. Very unlikely that Johnny Sexton would receive a French rugby jersey with his name on it after his final game for Ireland!
Brendan your dreams are magnificent – personally, I just want Ireland to get out of the group!
Lovely stories, getting us ready for the World Cup. Is it finally Ireland’s time to win the World Cup?
OMG, Cian, is it finally Ireland’s time to (a) to get out of the group and (b) win a quarter final – something we’ve never done before. Irl v Australia 1991 (Lansdowne Road, Dublin) quarter final was an absolute killer.
Great way to build up to the RWC. Keep them coming!
Cheers Barry – another little ditty between France & Ireland – football 2005 https://tinyurl.com/2dhr89e6
Thanks for sharing these uplifting stories Paul. All humanity needs to read them. We are bombarded daily with negative stories. These are great.
Looking forward to watching Fra v NZ tomorrow. I’m expecting a tough battle.
Could that be the Final also Lawrence? What a mouth-watering opening match for #RWC2023. Bring it on.
Great story. Thank you for sharing
Thanks Emily – this will be a veritable feast of rugby and hopefully sportsmanship too.
Hopefully rugby will never lose its long tradition of sportsmanship under pressure of professionalism.
Hope the world cup lives up to expectations and Ireland achieve the dream.
It is intriguing and wonderful to watch sportsmanship survive in any professional sport. Perhaps, David, rugby is an iconic natural leader of sportsmanship amidst the savage competitive nature and silky skills amidst the heat of battle.