investigation into rugby initiations fuelled the fire. Releasing gruesome stories about events that happened at the University of Loughborough and University of Manchester. Further backing up the point that rugby initiations are just not worth going through. <\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s clear to see Parsons\u2019 viewpoint about the situation. For someone who went through the process to someone who helps create the tasks; he is a big advocate for the initiations: \u201cWe have a rugby committee where we decide what\u2019s going to happen. We have a tradition where we carry on the same activities year after year. A typical initiation is 4 or 5 activities that take place throughout the evening, mostly consisting of alcohol for example boat races or drinking competitions.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nTradition is a huge part of why these events still take place, it wouldn\u2019t be a university sports team without an initiation: \u201cThey [initiations] are banned at every university, so we have to call it welcome drinks now, the university know this goes on but it is frowned upon. As a vice captain I have to attend meetings beforehand to make welcome drinks welcoming.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nThe initiations kick off with the freshers \u201cdowning a bottle of red wine\u201d, which can be an overwhelming task in itself, but Parsons was quick to reassure that not being able to participate isn\u2019t the be all and end all of a university rugby career: \u201cEveryone is welcome at this university, some other universities do not let the player have a club tie if they don\u2019t complete initiations but for us it\u2019s a bit of fun. We want to make sure everyone understands that. Therefore they are more likely to get involved.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nA huge argument is that they are not even necessary. The rugby team would still operate without these initiations but Parsons opposes this view: \u201cThe team ethos in any rugby team is always high, it\u2019s higher than any other university team, and of course initiations and socials really help that.\u201d When asked about if they should remain banned he was quick to reply. \u201cI don\u2019t think they should be banned, at the end of the day it is one of the best nights I\u2019ve ever had at university and after they are done everyone feels a lot closer and maybe more part of the team now they have been initiated\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nThe stories that people can\u2019t play in the team if you don\u2019t take part in these seems to be more of a myth than a reality. The University of Roehampton have a strong rugby team and have always have been known for their sporting glory. It\u2019s clear to see that no matter the opinion of initiations, they do help in bonding the team which, in rugby as much as any sport, is the first cog in the successful sporting machine. <\/span><\/p>\nWords: <\/strong>Kieran Soutter | Subbing: <\/strong>Asllan Gecaj<\/p>\nFeature Image :\u00a0Goodfellow Air Force Base<\/span><\/h6>\nMusic: Smells Like Summer – Del<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/youtu.be\/2T368tX9Wco Rugby culture at university is renowned for brutal initiations and crazy social events. At every university around the country people have heard stomach wrenching horror stories of rugby initiations, and what freshers go through…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,116],"tags":[3161,3195,5364,5818,6597],"class_list":["post-15359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sport","tag-initiation","tag-interview","tag-rugby-union","tag-sport","tag-university"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}