Weekly Ramble

Firstly I would like to thank all the people that visit this blog. They are the fire that keeps the blog burning and the reason for its existence. I would also like to thank all those who leave their comments here. Some harsh, some abusive, but nonetheless very informative. And one of them has given me a topic for my ramble today.

Who owns Rugby? Is it a word, is it a game, is it a place? From my understanding, the game of Rugby Football came into being when a youngster by the name William Webb Ellis of Rugby School in England picked up a football and ran with it. And thus the origins of the sport. So does the name belong to the school, or the person who started the game? Hard to tell? Fast forward to today and the game is played all over the world in hundreds of countries. The chief administrator of the game is the International Rugby Board, based in Dublin, Ireland nowhere near Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The local Rugby Union claims to get its mandate from the same body. Does that then mean that all Rugby being played in the Kenya and therefore in the World have to get its mandate from the same bodies? Or is that just to tread a certain path leading to perhaps recognition or participation in sanctioned events like the Rugby Sevens World Cup and the Rugby World Cup? My indirect question is that do I need permission from the IRB to do anything using the word Rugby?

My lawyer friends (full pun intended here) will help me out here, but I believe Rugby is now an accepted English word. As such, it is not possible to patent or register as a trade name/mark the word Rugby. All one can do is register a design, logo or other in a certain shape, colour or size and that you are allowed to register. Can you then register Kenya Rugby or Rugby Kenya, or other variants of the two words with conjunctions? In short, can one own Rugby in Kenya?

I will leave that begging as that can take a whole week to thrash out. My point today is that where KRFU has been deficient in organisation or otherwise, I do not think they need to harass the gap being filled. We all know nature abhors a vacuum and it is not the fault of the vacuum filler, but of the vacuum creator. And unless you are able to prevent the vacuum from being created, do not cry when it gets filled. For a group unable to even account for its own jerseys that they have purchased to sell, they cry when someone makes red t-shirts with the word rugby on it! For people unable to rally the crowd/fans/country round they team, they now make noise when someone tries to bring order into it. And for people ready to masquerade as part of that group when it suits them, one wonders how they turn round to wonder if the players appreciate the work this group is doing. NKT.

I had actually planned to do a reverse post on this matter some time back, and maybe I will. But the unspoken that was spoken on this blog has inspired this post earlier than I was ready.