Schools, Sport, And 'Gentlemanliness'

I never understood school sport.
I found it to be a time of torture,
where the rules of the  game
become excuses for hierarchies,
but finally I understand
the principles around which 
male team sports work.

Rugby is a thugs game played by gentlemen
and football is a gentleman's game played by thugs,
where the thuggery is the working class element.
And being a gentleman is middle or upper class.

Both required a concentration and co-ordination
that I lacked. I was a dropout who got trapped
within 'the system', an escapee
from the pressure of class expectation
particularly within education.

When I sound like a gentleman now
it is because I have learned to think
more than act out my lack of co-ordination.