It's Time To Ask The Question Everybody Has Been Wondering: What's The Deal With Rugby Whistles?
So rugby is back in New Zealand. And like all the way back. We're talking 43,000 in the crowd back, those lucky bastards. But with rugby being the first sport to fully return back to normal with full crowds in the stands, that means the sport is going to be gaining a lot of extra attention right now as the entire planet is starved for both sports and normalcy. And with so much attention being placed on Super Rugby Aotearoa, you're going to start hearing a sound that is so foreign that it makes you feel like you are going to vomit. Or at the very least, you're going to be like "what the fuck was that".
The sound I am talking about, of course, are the whistles. It is unlike anything else you have ever heard in your life. Here you are thinking that the world is finally healing and you're finally sitting down to watch a normal sporting event take place. And then the ref has to kick you square in the dick with that flat ass whistle sound to send you straight back to our current episode of Black Mirror which we call reality.
Is it because they're in a different hemisphere? Kind of in the same way that toilets flush the opposite way in Australia? Is that why the sound is so different? Or are rugby refs just a bunch of "look at me" jabronis who feel the need to be different to stand out?
This is what a whistle is supposed to sound like.
This is what a whistle is supposed to sound like.
This is what a whistle is supposed to sound like.
It's just a shame, man. Some things are bigger than sports. You'd think rugby would have a heart here and try to be a little accommodating to those of us who are used to the normal whistle in our lives. At the very least, maybe have the broadcast on a 2-second delay so they can swap out the whistle sounds for all of us watching at home. But instead they just think of themselves and feel the need to be different. Lacrosse would never.