Chris mentioned the likelihood of antipodean interest in the Lions, and having attended tonight’s big football game in Brisbane, I’m happy to give a report. The home crowd was delirious with joy as the familiar strains of La Marseillaise floated over the ground, signalling a crushing win for the Lions. Bradshaw and Akermanis were brilliant, and the margin of 74 points was overwhelming.
In other sporting news, Australia beat France 37-31 in rugby union and NZ beat UK+IE 48-18.
To explain all this, the Brisbane Australian Rules team is called the Lions, and its club song in is to the tune of La Marseillaise[1]. After a bad start to the season, they’ve returned to premiership form in the last few matches. There’s a full report of the game here
fn1. A rather cheeky choice, but any French sporting team who wants to do so is welcome to set their own words to Advance Australia Fair.
{ 10 comments }
Chris Bertram 07.02.05 at 9:26 am
Good one John, but you mustn’t say “NZ beat UK 48-18” … Should be UK+Ireland.
John Quiggin 07.02.05 at 11:07 pm
Fixed, Chris, though I don’t know whether I should apologise to Irish readers for lumping them in with the UK (a la SNCF) or claim their thanks for omitting their role in this debacle.
Errol 07.03.05 at 1:59 am
I’m afraid you’ll have to fix it again – the Irish rugby team represents all of the island, they are the ‘British Isles and Ireland Lions’.
There was more confusion when they played the Wellington rugby team – called the Lions!
Daniel 07.03.05 at 8:44 am
Errol is right; Northern Ireland is double-counted in “UK + IE” as referring to the Lions.
John Quiggin 07.03.05 at 3:33 pm
Umm, doesn’t IE (as opposed to “Ireland”) refer specifically to the Republic of Ireland? If so, I don’t see the double counting, though UK+IE implies a different partition than the official one.
And if Ireland accounts for the whole island, why aren’t they just the “British and Irish Lions”. Is the Isle of Man counted specially?
Errol 07.03.05 at 3:55 pm
I wouldn’t suggest applying logic to the situation, you’ll just confuse everyone! :-)
I don’t see any problem with counting the island of Ireland as one of the ‘British Isles’ geographically. However, lots of people get upset when you do this. Presumably the same people that objected to ‘God Save The Queen/King’ being played in Ireland when teams who normally use it as their National Anthem visited.
And while they are commonly referred to in the media as “the British Lions” or “the British and Irish Lions”, I assume the significant-in-area parts of Scotland that aren’t part of the island of Great Britain get narky if the official name implies they don’t count.
Or perhaps they used to be ‘The British Lions’ until Partition, tried ‘The British Isles Lions’ for a bit (the tours are around every 4 years), then went to the current usage?
Ben 07.04.05 at 3:26 am
Damn and blast those infernal kiwis for their superior play..
Phoenician in a time of Romans 07.05.05 at 1:22 am
Damn and blast those infernal kiwis for their superior play..
Two-nil, two-nil, Twoooo-nil, T-
What am I saying? I didn’t even bother watching the game.
Sorry, momentary loss of reason to patriotic ferver.
James Wimberley 07.06.05 at 4:47 pm
What’s all this about Australian Rules football? Surely an oxymoron.
James Wimberley 07.06.05 at 4:52 pm
“Australian Rules” football: is that the riot performed by ozziemorons?
Comments on this entry are closed.