By pebles
July 15 2003

It all started after we moved up to Leicester permanently from Cornwall, a handful or brothers & sisters along with the two youngest, the twins, myself & my sister. By Pebles


It was since then that we got associated with rugby, my older brother dragged me along to see Leicester and loved it there while my twin went off on a birthday party with her mate to see Northampton play. We were only 9 then and too naive to know anything about the bitter rivalry between the two teams, we still got on like normal sisters, fighting over the simplest things but never rugby. Rugby was a week-end thing that we went about our separate ways on and we never mentioned anything about it until we got back and told each other tales about what funny things had happened and who had won.

The first derby game we went to was in the year after we got introduced to the sport. There was loads of hype between my brother and his friends and my sister started having a go at me for supporting tigers, I just thought it was her fault for not going along with my brother when he took me along for the first time! Everyone in the stand we stood in was talking about the game as it was only once a year that the sides met at Welford Road in a league game and it was deemed as a big occasion until the next one came along.

At the game itself, my sister and I went our separate ways until the end of the game when we never took it out of each other, just a polite "good game" was all that was needed in public, the real bickering would start at home, where she'd protest that saints played best on the day, but since when have they ever played best?

Perhaps the one that stood out for me the most was the one last season when they halted our home scoring record, it was the first time in ages that Emma had something to tease me about but to be honest I didn't care, I know we played badly, and Emma rubbing it in was just part of the package - had been happening for years with our group of friends who had expected us to come to blows at the ground when we were teenagers.

Maybe this sibling rivalry is one of the better ones, my nephews and nieces have taken it on into new lights now with more psychological damage on each other, in any sport possible, where they have chosen the opposite side just to cause trouble and give their parents some grief. All I'm happy with is someone I can argue about the rugby with that isn't my husband, you always need some variety or you'll get bored of fighting because it's the same each time.