2023-09-06 16:35:01
Each sport has its own “connoisseur” vocabulary: rugby, whose World Cup will be held from September 8 to October 28 in France, is no exception and gives pride of place to the culinary metaphor.
Published on: 09/06/2023 – 4:35 p.m.
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Avoid “pizzas” but chain “caramels”, succeed in a “spoon” but do not make a “cathedral”: often cooks, sometimes masons but always with a very colorful vocabulary, rugby players have their own jargon, as often for sports disciplines. Overview of the earthy language of the rugby community before the World Cup in France.
The “big ones” must keep the ball in the “cocotte”
For the “piano movers” or the “big ones”, namely the eight players in front, who wear this last nickname less and less well as professionalism wins this sport, everything starts in the kitchen.
No question for the hooker to “throw a pizza” in touch, at the risk of losing the ball which would land in the hands of an opponent after a hazardous throw. Better to keep it warm in a “cocotte”, where François Cros, Paul Willemse and the other blue forwards will push by surrounding the ball carrier.
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If the time of “forks”, a vicious gesture consisting of putting your fingers in the opponent’s eyes, or that of “knuckle salads”, namely punches, is over, we expect forwards to put a “buffet stop” by distributing “caramels”, devastating tackles also called “buffers” or “cartridges”.
Sometimes clumsy, the forward can find himself sending a “cinderblock”, an ill-fitting “in the socks” pass that his more agile teammate will try to catch up.
But a player can never make a “cathedral” tackle, turning his opponent over so that he falls with his head to the ground, at the risk of final expulsion. When he is deprived of the ball, it is up to him to be present at the “scraping” on the ground to recover it with the strength of his biceps, an area where France shines with his hooker Julien Marchand or the n°8 Gregory Alldritt.
Once the legs are weighed down by this fight, the spaces open up and with them land the panoply of beautiful technical gestures.
“Goose step” or “chistera” for artists
With one hand, the opener Matthieu Jalibert and the other backs acrobatically send a “chistera” behind their backs, try to pass their opponents on a “cad deb”, or “overflow framing”, sudden change of support that succeeds winger Damian Penaud regularly brilliantly.
Rarer, he can attempt a “goose step”, a feint whose false stop step deceives the opponent, a gesture immortalized by former Australian winger David Campese.
Sport born in England, rugby is full of terms directly taken from the English language, such as “offload” or pass after contact, where the player manages to give the ball even though he is tackled.
Helped by a “cross”, where a teammate’s run without the ball deceives the defender, or a good “fuss” to move his opponent away with his hand, a player finally breaks through: but beware of the “spoon” of an opponent who, with a dive, catches the foot of the player to unbalance him and make him fall.
Unless a last defender, in a desperate and illegal gesture, gratifies the ball carrier with a “tie” by sending his forearm in the face rather than seeing him arrive in the “promised land”, namely the in-goal.
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If the game remains closed and the chances are rare, the scrum-half use and abuse “kicking in the box”, which they hit themselves from the back of a group. They can also leave it to their opener to mount the highest possible “candles” to light the way… and hope that the opponent misses the reception of this high ball.
When the scoreboard shows 80 minutes, if everything has gone well, and full-back Thomas Ramos and the other scorers have “enquired” the penalties by passing them between the poles, it’s time for the “third half “. Where it is glasses that the players will enquilleront this time, during the memorable libations that accompany titles such as defeats in rugby.
With AFP
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