Rugby?

Understanding narcissism is like understanding rugby

Rugby is a sport played all over the world. It tends to be very popular in pockets of the world but almost unheard of in many parts.

So, let’s assume you know absolutely nothing about rugby.

You’re on holiday in London, England (where rugby is very popular, England being one of the superpowers of the game). By some circumstances you end up with tickets to the big game between England and New Zealand. As you approach Twickenham stadium the atmosphere is electric. You’re swept off your feet by the crowds as rival fans sing and cordially chant at each other. As you take your seat high in the stand along with 82,000 other people, you just cannot believe that this sport you’ve barley even heard of before could draw such a crowd. The noise is deafening, fireworks are exploding all around as the teams take their positions on the pitch.

Then the crowd falls silent. Completely silent, you could hear a pen drop. You notice that the England team have retreated from the center of the pitch. You observe that the New Zealand team start to assemble into a V shaped formation pointed at their opposition.

Amplified around the stadium, from the center of the V you hear a gut wrenching roar. The other New Zealand players immediately respond with a guttural growl as they assume an attacking stance. This continues and evolves into a full on tribal war dance that is customary for the pacific island teams. It is known as “The Haka”. You’re blown away and quite rightly so.

Shortly after, now that England have been sufficiently intimidated, the game begins with England simply kicking the ball to New Zealand. “Wait… What… why did they just give the ball away”? you wonder

As the game evolves, you observe players colliding at speed, piling up on top of each other, rolling over each other on the ground and assembling in strange formations to engage in quite a lot of pushing.

The crowd are ecstatic, the noise is deafening as New Zealand issue wave after wave of attack on England but cannot penetrate their defenses. By now you’ve gathered that they seem to be aiming to get the ball over england end line, but you’re not sure why they’re not kicking the ball at the goal posts and begin to wonder what the goal posts are for at all.

All of a sudden, with players sprawled on the ground and a bunch more piled up on top of each other, the sound of the referees whistle is piercing. There is an eruption from the England supporters and groans of dismay from the New Zealand supporters.

“What, what happened” you ask the person beside you completely bewildered. He responds in the Kings finest accent “It’s a 22 drop out”.

What?

As the game continues, it’s characterized by set plays, set pieces, strange formations, sometimes the players are throwing the ball, other times they’re kicking it.

Every time the referee blows his whistle the crowd erupt.

The helpful English gentleman tries to explain it to you. He refers, to fly-half’s, blind-side, flankers, offside, line-out’s, maul’s, ruck’s etc. but you still can’t even work out which team gets possession when the ball goes out of play.

Play after play, you see them happening right before you, you even see it replayed back on the big screens around the stadium but nope, you’re hopelessly lost. The helpful gentleman tells you the name of each play, the name of each event, the name of each rule but it’s all over your head. Even as they repeat throughout the game, you still don’t recognize them because the circumstances are different, the context is different, etc.

The game is over. New Zealand won (you think).

You ask the helpful gentleman just to confirm, he points to the scoreboard for you. Doh!

You jokingly ask him how he knows the rules so well. “Did you play?”

He responds with a laugh, “Ah, you’re a newbie. Yep, I played for twenty years. Didn’t you know that everyone here is either a psychologist or a surviver?”.

Learn the vocabulary, the vocabulary describes each maneuver, describes each behavior. Recognize them, one at a time, put them together, you'll get your understanding