In his Rolling Maul blog for The Times, Stephen Jones assesses whether the often precious attitude towards silence for kickers is really all that important.
"Whenever there is booing or jeering as an opposition kicker is taking a shot at goal, you can be sure that the public address system will soon kick into life and we will hear an announcement in tones associated with Mr Quelch. For those who have not made a close study of the Billy Bunter books, Mr Quelch was a master who tended to cane first and ask questions afterwards.
"You will have heard the announcement many times. “May I remind you of rugby’s sacred traditions of silence for the kicker ... no sneezing or shuffling of seat or blowing the nose ... offenders will be ejected from the ground and may be birched ... lack of parental supervision … downfall of Western civilisation as we know it, end of rugby, blah blah blah... “
"At some grounds they really make a big thing of the deadest of dead silences. Munster and Leicester are two of the most hostile arenas but the fans there, accompanied by a loud shushing, are so desperate to maintain the silence that they have been known to loudly attack cringing radio commentators who have the temerity to do their job and whisper into the microphone as the kick is being prepared. This on the grounds that their listeners might be confused by two minutes of dead silence and that a few whispered sentences make absolutely no difference to the kick whatsoever."
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