The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life

On one particularly glorious afternoon of rugby, the French national team conquered opponents from the British Isles to be crowned Champions of Europe.  Yet, the year was not 2025, and the code of rugby was not Union; the year was 1939, and the code was Rugby League. A love of rugby is surely in the blood of any Gallic sports fan, but it may come as a surprise to those who follow France in the Six...

In 1895, Rugby's Great Split occured.  Working class players situated largely in Northern England broke away from the sport's governing body - The Rugby Football Union (RFU) - due to the fact that the RFU's unwillingness to compensate players for the "broken time" incurred through playing the sport. The RFU and Rugby Union were very much synonymous with the English Public...

Is it possible to think of England’s 1966 World Cup win without hearing Kenneth Wolstenholme describing how "some people are on the pitch” before he delivered the immortal line "They think it's all over, it is now!" as Geoff Hurst slammed the ball home, completing his hat-trick and securing the English National side's greatest triumph?  Would the Asheswin at Edgbaston in 2...

In 1987's FIFA Youth World Cup, a dynamic and exciting young Yugoslav side featuring multiple players (Robert Jarni, Igor Štimac, Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinečki, Predrag Mijatović and Davor Šuker) that would go on to have stellar careers in the game, defeated the likes of Brazil and West Germany en route to claiming the prize. Numerous members of this side went on to represent Yugoslavia a...

There are few sports which elevate the importance of the so-called “spirit of the game” quite as much as cricket, but in the Antipodean summer of 1932-33 relations were decidedly frosty between the national teams of Australia and England. This episode of ‘The Way We See Sport’, The Way We See Life sees Nathan and Chris launch series 2 with a deep-dive into the infamous Bodyline Ashes Series. As te...

When we left the story exploring the parallels between the tenures of Graham Taylor and John Major at the end of Part One in the summer of 1992, both men were perhaps at the peak of their powers.  Taylor’s England were looking forward to that summer’s European Championships having already comfortably seen off one of their Group Stage opponents (France) 2-0 in a friendly at Wembley earlier in the y...

During the autumn of 1990, the winds of change were blowing with respect to two of the most prominent positions in British culture, the England National team manager and the Prime Minister.  Two long-standing incumbents, Bobby Robson and Margaret Thatcher were both swept from power and replaced by less experienced and notably lower key successors (Graham Taylor and John Major). Taylor and Major ha...

29th May 1985.  A date that has gone down in infamy due to the tragic events that occurred ahead of that season's European Cup Final at Heysel.  39 fans (mostly Italian Juventus supporters) lost their lives when a wall collapsed as they were trying to flee from an attack from Liverpool fans.   The event was the culmination of a decade or so in which hooligan activity had come to be seen as &a...

In the shadow of the Gulf War, two teams of golfers met at Kiawah Island in 1991 for what soon developed into the most explosive and ill-tempered Ryder Cup ever to be held. In this latest episode of 'The Way We See Sport, The Way We See Life', Nathan and Chris delve into an event which is often considered to be an example of when healthy sporting rivalry crossed the line into disrespectf...

During this week’s episode of ‘The Way We See Life, The Way We See Sport’, Chris and Nathan look back upon the forays of both of Ireland’s football sides during the successive World Cup competitions of 1982, 1986, 1990 & 1994.  At a time when day-to-day life on the Island of Ireland was beset by the sectarian conflict, the participation of Northern Ireland (1982 & 1986) and The Republic of...

In this week’s episode of ‘The Way We See Sport, The Way See Life’, we are going back to a sunny Autumn afternoon in 1972.  Three years after Woodstock, The Moon Landing and the New York Jets' stunning victory in the third iteration of the Super Bowl, the team from the Big Apple met once more with their vanquished opponents from that day - the Baltimore Colts. What followed was one of the fin...

In 1895, clubs in Northern England broke away from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) to form their own Northern Union.  The key issue was payment to players. Southern clubs stemming from Rugby's roots in the English Public School system sought to uphold the sport's amateur status, considering it obscene to pay players.  Northern clubs, on the other hand, tended to be based in the industrial...

Joe Louis was the trailblazing boxer who had become the hero of black American communities across the U.S.A during the 1930s. Max Schmeling was the German heavyweight with ties to the very top of the Nazi Party.  At first glance, their two-fight series can be seen as a clash between good and evil. It was the champion of liberty from the “shining city on the hill” against the brutal antagonist from...