With a longstanding rivalry dividing the supporters of each University, Carnegie stadium was charged as over 15,000 students filled the seats. The finale to varsity and a hotly anticipated event, a few chants were thrown around in the lead up to the game as opposing sides presented entertainment to work the crowd into an appropriate frenzy for the event to begin.

A hierarchy has been present among universities for as long as the educational institutions have existed, with each one investing time and money in improving every aspect of the experience to boost their standings in the annual league tables. Friends are scattered about the country, each of them knowing where their university stands, and some light-hearted boasting about the quality of their degree pops up every once in a while.

However, that light-hearted teasing disguises an ugly division that separates some institutions from one another. Within Leeds, Uni of students hold a reputation – when comparing the two – of being posh, while some students critique Leeds Beckett for more humble beginnings and previously being known as Leeds Polytechnic.

Upon the start of the rugby union final at Carnegie stadium, the expected chants begin, with all students getting involved. For Uni of students, the most popular chant consisted of simply yelling ‘uni’ at the field – simple, but effective. The competition was fierce, and chants began to follow suit, getting increasingly aggressive as each side got swept up in the exciting prospect of winning a game that holds bragging rights until the annual rematch.

It was not long before an archaic stereotype made itself known in the form of hurtful chants that were too personal. Uni of students all around start insisting that we pay their benefits, that our parents are more successful in their careers, and that Beckett students will not be able to pay back their loans. It is a fact that nearly all of us will struggle to pay back our loans once we venture out into the working world, and these assumptions that Uni of students and our families are superior in all the ways that can rhyme encourages a snobbish division between the two universities.

The chants are harsh, they are personal, they are entirely irrelevant to the nature of the game, and are unnecessary. Whether or not this outrage is naïve considering the scope of sports and the accompanying chants, in this instance we are perpetuating a division that does not need to extend outside of competitive events. In every day life, many students consider Beckett students to be lesser, and that is not the case.

All of us are trying to make our way through a world that will be endlessly more difficult than it has been for those before us, and it does no good to carry on supercilious traditions. Rugby is commended for being a sport that values good sportsmanship, but it is apparent that supporters have not quite got the message. All of us need some time in the sin bin.

Elise Middleton
(Image courtesy of The Independent)