Rugby World editor Joe Robinson has been through the emotional wringer with West Ham and believes rugby fans are missing out on the true pain of sports fandom
The pain and turmoil trundles on for another five days. This never-ending nightmare of a season goes down to the final day.
Just when we thought it was all over, Spurs remain Spursy and hand us a lifeline. The irony that David Moyes could save us from the second tier for a third time is not lost on the claret and blue army.
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Archiving WhatsApp chats with smug Arsenal fans singing their contrived anthem. Two-word expletive texts from my dad after yet another loss. “We deserve to go down”.
Erroneous celebrations in the West Stand to VAR-ruined Callum Wilson goals. The brief respite from talkSPORT’s Jason Cundy in an Ange Postecoglou mask.
It got darkest when the chance of an Arsenal league title, Spurs survival, West Ham drop and Millwall promotion all aligned. I feel blessed this is not reality.
West Ham fans show their dejection after going 1-0 down during the Premier League match between Brentford and West Ham United at Gtech Community Stadium on May 02, 2026 in Brentford, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
I am a lifetime away from watching that Europa Conference League trophy tour through Stratford.
Sullivan out, bring back the Boleyn. The mental capacity of being a long-suffering West Ham has been consuming me for the last few months.
So much so that even as the editor of the world’s longest-standing rugby magazine, the oval ball has become a secondary thought. My energy has been needed on manifesting a West Ham escape job.
Soon it will be over. I can go back to mid-morning Summer Tests and riding my bike in the sun.
Will rugby fans pay for no promotion/relegation?
But coming out the other side of this footballing malaise, I’ve become hyper aware that my emotions have been something not shared by the rugby fans I write for day to day. PREM Rugby confirmed promotion/relegation had been scrapped earlier this year but in reality it has been absent from English rugby for the last few years.
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The threat of the drop and what comes with it no longer on the worry sheet. So when Newcastle Red Bulls shipped 76 at home to fellow table anchors Harlequins, we should have been treated to TNT Sports camera shots of desolate Geordies left in the stands long after the game had finished.
Jamie Hodgson, George McGuigan, Tom Christie, and Freddie Clarke of Newcastle Red Bulls show dejection during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Newcastle Red Bulls and Harlequins at Kingston Park in Newcastle, United Kingdom, on May 10, 2026. (Photo by MI News/NurPhoto)
Danny Care on comms sympathising “you’ve got to feel for the fans, it’s not their fault.” Instead we were all shrugging like Alan Partridge at a result that ultimately meant nothing. The jeopardy at the bottom is non-existent.
In effect, 40% of the league have not been playing for anything bar a Champions Cup spot since the new year.
Over the last few weeks, a lot of scorelines have read like the Metropolitan Met League I played in last season. Removing the lurking spectre of relegation, however unlikely it was, has allowed players to be on the beach from Spring without repercussion.
Speak to people involved with the clubs at the bottom and they know the fight is not what it should be. Unlike any other sport, rugby showcases effort and intensity clearer than any other and we can see plain as day when it is lacking.
And I know promotion/relegation is not viable in England. The gulf between the clubs in the PREM and the CHAMP is far too vast and the requirements to actually be eligible for the league increasingly tougher to meet. But we cannot deny the average match-going fans is losing out here.
I appreciate there is little that traditional rugby fans want to borrow from football but I think we can agree the devout passion of its geographically-defined fan bases is an envy, especially when it comes to a relegation dog fight.
Nothing has unified us Irons more than a collective desperation at our league position. Especially those bravest souls who will have travelled to Newcastle and Leeds via our extortionate rail system in back-to-back weekends. We salute you.
Contrast that with Quins. A usually rock-solid fanbase nestled in rugby’s birthplace, this season has seen empty seats in the stands.
Alex Dombrandt of Harlequins runs with the ball during the Gallagher PREM match between Harlequins and Exeter Chiefs at Allianz Stadium on May 16, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
Quins scraped 32,000 to their Big Summer Kick-off across the road at Twickenham against Exeter Chiefs, 18,000 less than attended the equivalent fixture against Gloucester last year and reportedly 15,000 tickets short of the level needed to be in profit.
Ironically they took an unlikely victory which would have been much enjoyed by a crowd should they have been duty-bound to attend. Instead they will have watched from home, half an eye on the telly, the other on the BBQ.
But this is not me remonstrating with the removal of promotion/relegation in the PREM. Nor is this me even adding constructive criticism at potential law changes which could incentivise clubs further in the season.
This is just me, in my West Ham-induced pain, saying I feel for rugby fans not being put through the wringer. Because that is what sports fandom is about at its core. Experiencing collective disappointment which bonds you closer to the club, the dark days pulling you into what it means to call yourself a fan, impromptu crossed Iron arms during European beach holidays and all.
Making the rare glory days of being your average sports fan even sweeter.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: rugbyworld.com
