Discipline needed for our beloved sporting action to return

COVID 19 has changed the world in some ways that are obvious and in ways that we haven’t even imagined. It struck me today as I was walking along a road in the middle of nowhere near my house. At a certain point, I became aware that I was probably nearing the 2km radius mandated by the health guidelines so, for the craic, I whipped out my phone and checked 2kmfromhome.com.

That site showed me that, sure enough, around 100m up the road ahead of me was an invisible barrier that was outside the 2km radius allowed. If I followed the road as I had planned to complete my “loop” back to the house, I’d be breaking the 2km guideline.

I turned around and walked back the way I’d come. Why? No one would have known if I’d gone outside the radius for the 10 minutes max it would have taken to get back on my loop but I didn’t. All it takes is enough people cutting a small corner here and there to suit themselves before the whole thing comes crashing down.

When you see people having a house party in your estate, they didn’t just decide to jump to that stage. It came with small breaks along the way. Maybe they thought because they met a friend in a park outside the radius and they didn’t die that it was OK. Maybe they visited their elderly parents on the sly and nothing bad happened in the week since.

If I walked past that invisible line, who could it hurt? Everyone. Because it would be a break of the individual discipline we all need to beat this virus. Walking 101m up a road might not directly condemn someone to die alone with tubes down their throat as they look at medical staff they don’t know through a window, but the concept of breaking guidelines because it would be convenient for me keeps the virus alive on our island for longer.

If enough people make those small, selfish decisions, we collectively edge closer to overwhelmed hospitals, mass graves and a world that would be so bad, we’d dream of going back to what we have today. 

When I think about what professional rugby will look like after the grand re-ordering of what we took for granted at Christmas, it really does pale into comparison to the battle we’re currently fighting. Rugby doesn’t matter in the current battle but, if we’re to get through this pandemic, we have to fight every day to get back to the normality that we love.

For me, a big piece of that normality is professional rugby. So every time I wash my hands even though they are red and sore, every time I disinfect my shopping for 20 minutes, every time I cross the road to avoid someone, every time I get lonely, every time I miss the world before, I look at it as a necessary pain that I have to endure to get my normality back sooner.