Support
Rugby union and Wales' national team hold an important place in Welsh culture and society. Sport historian John Bale has stated that "rugby is characteristically Welsh", and David Andrew said that "To the popular consciousness, rugby is as Welsh as coal mining, male voice choirs, 'How Green Was My Valley,' Dylan Thomas, and Tom Jones". Welsh rugby's first 'golden age' (1910–1911) coincided with the country's zenith during the 20th century, and rugby was important in building Wales' modern identity.
The 2004–05 season saw record attendances for Welsh home internationals. For Wales' 2005 Six Nations match against Scotland in Edinburgh, 40,000 Welsh fans travelled to see the game. The home attendance record was bettered the next year when over 500,000 fans attended Wales' seven home matches. The Millennium Stadium regularly sells out all of its 74,500 seats.
Read more about this topic: Wales National Rugby Union Team
Famous quotes containing the word support:
“American families, however, without exception, experience a double message in our society, one that claims a commitment to families and stresses the importance of raising bright, stable, productive citizens, yet remains so bound by an ideal of “rugged individualism” that parents receive little support in their task from the public or private sectors.”
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“... married women work and neglect their children because the duties of the homemaker become so depreciated that women feel compelled to take a job in order to hold the respect of the community. It is one thing if women work, as many of them must, to help support the family. It is quite another thing—it is destructive of woman’s freedom—if society forces her out of the home and into the labor market in order that she may respect herself and gain the respect of others.”
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“Can you support the expense of a husband, hussy, in gaming, drinking and whoring? Have you money enough to carry on the daily quarrels of man and wife about who shall squander most?”
—John Gay (1685–1732)