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List of controversial Aszar Rugby Cup matches: Difference between revisions
List of controversial Aszar Rugby Cup matches (view source)
Revision as of 18:47, 14 February 2022
, 2 years ago→"Scab Slaughter Saturday" (2008)
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The [[2021 Aszar Rugby Cup season|Aszar Rugby Cup]] is [[Aduraszna]]'s top-level domestic men's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_union rugby union] championship which has run on a yearly basis since its founding in 1924. Fourteen teams from across Aduraszna, as well as [[Rikevaarland]] United and [[Kireitarenu'a]] RC, compete in matches from March through to November of every year, culminating in a play-off series to decide the winner. Many teams have origins in the trade union movement (the sport was originally known as "union rugby" in its early days) and some still retain the names. However, most teams no longer consider themselves part of their respective trade unions, and instead operate under a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50%2B1_rule "50+1"] system, where a club is majority owned by its members, but allows private investment from individuals or corporations.
In the first televised ARC match (''Emeralds 43 - 26 Oterszan, 13 March 1943''), rugby was described by one commentator as "thirty burly men fighting over an egg". The ARC is no stranger to unsportsmanlike conduct.
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''ARC 1932 Semi-final; Turl Arla Rugby Club vs Lunstschatra Rangers (match conceded to the Rangers)''
By far and away, '''1932-TARC-LNCR-3''' stands uncontested as the most infamous match in ARC history. It was the culmination of a three-years long rivalry between Turl Arla and the Rangers, centering around long-standing personal grievances between TARC scrum-half Lókka Jazulra and LNCR hooker Tulrulis Kiunat. The two exchanged words and occasionally blows over the course of the championships, often not even during a match day. On November 12, 1932, Kiunat scored a controversially awarded penalty shortly before half-time to bring LNCR to a 21-19 lead, and allegedly taunted Jazulra about it on the way back to the changing rooms. Enraged by this, Jazulra hid a switchblade in his boot; when play resumed, he approached Kiunat from behind, retrieved the knife, and slit his throat. Since murder was not explicitly banned in the ARC rulebook at the time (it was amended later, and nicknamed "the Jazulrule"),
= The Headcount Rule =
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''ARC 1942 Week 21; Oterszan Crows 7 - 0 Oterszan United''
78 minutes into '''1942-OTSC-OTSU-2''', the Oterszan Crows were set for an historic defeat of 7-85. Three Crows players banded together and kidnapped United substitute Kelkaletsz Val from the sidelines and threw him onto the pitch. As he was getting up, a co-conspirator demanded a headcount, and since Val was technically on the pitch at the time, United's score was wiped to zero. The Crows successfully stalled the remaining two minutes of play and were controversially allowed to keep their win on the record, since there were few eyewitnesses and, it being 1942, no further proof beyond he-said-she-said. The incident was only confirmed as real and not simply urban legend in 1995, following the publication of one of the Crows players' memoirs, ''Cheeky & Sneaky''.
== Headcount Rule following a mass brawl (
''ARC
Early in the second half of '''
= "Air Bud" incident (1998) =
''ARC 1998 Week 7; Oterszan Crows 23 - 35 Daukran Dek Warrior Cats''
Inspired by the movie, during the half-time of '''1998-OTSC-DDWC-1''', the Crows decided to send one of their players' pet dog, Fluffles, on to the field. Intended mainly as a joke, the stunt immediately backfired when Fluffles bit the Crows' scrum-half on the rear. Fluffles became the only dog to ever be intentionally given a red card by the referee (in 1986, a dog had stolen the referee's red card from out of his own hand while he was sending off a Rikevaarland player) and was given a twelve-match ban. The stunt backfired for a second time when it transpired that Section 14.6(g) of the ARC rulebook meant that dogs were, after all, not allowed to play rugby.
= "Scab Slaughter Saturday" (2008) =
''ARC 2008 Week 3; Vasri'ia United vs Faisluns 1st XV (match awarded to Faisluns)''
The first two weeks of the ARC 2008 season had been cancelled due to ongoing strike action, largely over players' pensions. By the third week, a handful of the teams had drafted temporary players, generally from other sports or retirees, to cross the picket lines and provide a full fifteen players. Although most of the scheduled Week 3 games went ahead, they were boycotted by most fans and sports journalists generally preferred to cover the picket lines outside the stadium instead of the amateurish rugby going on inside it. The Faisluns 1st XV, the only team in the league at the time to have come entirely from corporate backing instead of Aszar rugby's traditional union roots, managed to field nearly their entire original team - all but three crossed the pickets. Vasri'ia United, however, showed up to their scheduled away game with a team made entirely of rookies.
Vasri'ia began '''2008-VSRU-F1XV-1''' with a long kick-off, but as Faisluns looked to gain possession, the individual Vasri'ia players found their opposite number, and immediately and intentionally dealt season- or even career-ending injuries to the Faisluns players. In 2022, amongst other revelations about [[Posol Industries]], it transpired that the Vasri'ia United manager, Tsantóras Akura, had recruited most of the players from them as hitmen. Posol Industries had also supplied them with fake identities, an escape route through [[Faisluns-Handelvaar-Tømmer|Fantøm]] and the bare minimum understanding of the game of rugby necessary to complete the job without anyone catching on.
Of the fifteen Faisluns players on the pitch at the time, twelve were hospitalised with a wide array of injuries including puncture wounds from studded boots, broken bones, concussions, and blinding. The remaining players escaped with mere black eyes. Ten were still on injury leave by the end of the 2008 season, in which F1XV came 16th out of 16, subsequently being relegated to the League Shield division for 2009 - the only two seasons in which the Faisluns 2nd XV outperformed the 1st XV. Seven never played again.
Although the Aszar Athletes' Union condemned the incident, calling for peaceful strike action, "Scab Slaughter Saturday" has been cited both by commentators and players who were contemplating crossing the picket line as a generally successful deterrent. The strike held for five further weeks before an agreement was reached between the AAU and the ARC's board of directors, and approved by the union members by 91%.
Vasri'ia United was hit with compounding fines that ended up theoretically totalling ƕ2 trillion (SH$1.2 trillion) - this was more than three times the total GDP of [[Aduraszna]] as a whole, and instead of appealing the fine, the club simply disbanded the following week. Its players were mostly scooped up by the neighbouring Vasri'ia Communist Party Reserves in the League Shield division, whose own players had all been fired after crossing the picket line.
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