Loving the Game

Historically, participation in rugby has been ordered through a ladder of belonging in which those legitimised to love it the most are at the top, and those damned as unfit to love it are at the bottom. To begin to understand this, recall that today, an amateur is widely understood to be a person who participates in an activity without a pecuniary motive, i.e., without expecting to be paid for it. Understanding rugby's amateur myth may help clarify the dominant discourses that have hindered mass Black participation in the sport. This myth has racialised trappings that have played a critical role in elaborating the suitability of people for rugby. With this in mind, this chapter looks at the amateur myth, exposing it as a racist and classist discursive trope that has enabled White, colonial and modern domination of sport. The amateur myth is revealed to be an exclusionary ideology that must be overcome if we are to genuinely and comprehensively open rugby and other modern sports to everyone who loves them.