Players for Scotland and Wales all remained standing ahead of their Six Nations rugby match on Saturday, defying uproar over many players not kneeling to Black Lives Matter at the earlier Scotland vs England fixture.
While players for England — with some notable exceptions — decided to “take a knee” for Black Lives Matter before facing off against the Scots team in their home stadium, only a handful of Scottish players followed suit.
The Scots went on to heft the Calcutta Cup after soundly defeating the English team — their first win over their much larger neighbour on English soil since 1983 — but the fact they had largely shunned the kneeling to BLM which has become ritual in many sports, and in particular football, before the game triggered a woke backlash.
“#AsOne is the message from Scottish Rugby. But the players don’t seem to be ‘as one’ in their stance against racism,” sniped Sky Sports News editor Anthony Joseph.
“It’s less about ‘they should kneel’ and more about ‘why wouldn’t they?’” he added, despite the fact that athletes’ decision to knee — or not — is supposed to be a personal one, and a subject for interrogation.
Rather than buckle under the pressure, however, the Scots’ stance on kneeling appears to have hardened following the outcry, with none of the players for their team or the Welsh national team kneeling ahead of their own Six Nations clash.
“There’s a moment to reflect, there are messages going up on the screens, everyone is watching on TV, they’re not at the stadium,” commented Gregor Townsend MBE, the Scottish team coach, ahead of the match, in reference to the “moment of reflection” the teams observed, on their feet, in lieu of bending the knee.
“It’s what rugby has chosen to do and we’ll follow that,” he insisted.
The match between the two Celtic nations proved to be a hard-fought struggle, with the Welsh winning by just one point — 25-24 — after being down significantly before half-time.
The Scots were hamstrung by the loss of a player to a red card in the second half, but did manage to regain the lead for a time despite this deficit with a try from the team captain.
Wales’s win takes them to the top of the leaderboard as the Six Nations tournament — between Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, France, and Italy — continues.