Everyone knows that if you want to go to the pub and watch a game of rugby, Pear Tree is the place to be. The atmosphere is electric. The big screen. All the people gathered outside. The loudspeakers. The build and the anticipation is the best part! It’s the community and the coming together, no matter what team you support, that makes Rugby so special.
I was so excited to watch England in the World Cup final. I got to Pear Tree an hour before kick off to secure a table – wearing all my layers and waterproofs, ready to watch it on the big screen.
But when I arrived, it was not the usual atmosphere that greeted me. The match was only being shown inside (luckily, due to being a keen bean, I was able to secure a table). Five minutes before the game, the only TV showing the build-up (which was muted) was turned over to the golf. We asked the manager to please move it back. He was dismissive that anyone would even want to watch the build-up. To the World Cup final.
When the match finally started on the small inside screens with limited seating, the sound was not played through the speakers, making it hard to hear the commentary and taking away from the overall atmosphere of the match.
Anyone who’s been to an international men’s rugby game, even a friendly, knows this is not what it’s usually like at Pear Tree. I can guarantee if the men were in the rugby world cup final, it wouldn’t only be shown inside without the sound on, regardless of what other sport, match, or gender was playing at the same time. Their treatment of a women’s World Cup final in comparison to a men’s friendly game was shocking, upsetting, and a total let-down from an Edinburgh institution.
It is up to venues like Pear Tree to champion women’s sport and ensure their triumphs are celebrated. It helps bring women’s sports into the mainstream and ensures they are embedded in the community the same way that the men’s game is, to ensure this incredible sporting achievement is recognised. When women are sidelined and (quite literally) silenced, it makes it harder and harder for them to find a space in the sporting community, particularly in a male-dominated sport like rugby. Change in women’s sport has to start at the grassroots, in the local pubs and rugby clubs. If there is no seat for us at the table, there is no way for us to achieve equality.
“The Pear Tree, Edinburgh, Aug 2017” by alljengi is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.