Richard to Rugby

/ SueBC

Why would the guy who admittedly preferred to stay inside reading rather than play footie (or presumably other sports) with his brother remind me of rugby? Well, as I was mentioning to Kate the other day, there are these screenshots on RichardArmitageNet.com that show just how suited those legs and let’s be honest, those glutes were for the rugby-short look in 2003’s Ultimate Force (which I haven’t actually seen yet).

It reminds me of the days when I used to watch my then fiancé/new hubby play rugby in the late ’80’s when the shorts were even shorter! I would sit and read my book in the sun, watching the guys not just my guy 😈 run across the pitch.

1988 Rugby Short Shorts

1988 image of a match in Australia snagged from YouTube

Funny thing… when I was looking for the Armitage rugby pictures to share with Kate, I came across what I first thought must be some cute fandom joke — an English rugby payer named Guy Richie Armitage! Apparently not a joke… and definitely not our Armitage! (Can you imagine our Armitage with this hairdo??)

Guy Richie Armitage

Speaking of first and middle names, did you notice that Richard Armitage’s character in the upcoming Netflix series, The Stranger, is named Adam Price? Seems meant to be, given that we learned in Berlin Station S3 that Daniel Miller’s middle name is Adam and his undercover surname in S2 was Price! What are the chances?

And following the rugby theme into The Stranger, Serv pointed out an Instagram post where Armitage’s castmate, Shaun Dooley, shared his olfactory method of getting into character:Invictus Scent

Personally, I prefer my men to just smell like humans, not being a bit fan of scent of any kind, but to each his/her own. According to Sephora, this scent goes for $108 CAD for 3.4 ounces! “…Invictus is the fragrance of a champion. Inspired by sporting and the thrill of competition, this aquatic, woody fragrance blends the excitement of sport with dreamlike elements that celebrate victory and power. A truly magnetic scent, it embodies masculine strength.”

The rugby connection of course is to the movie, Invictus, about Nelson Mandela and Springboks’ captain François Pienaar and the overcoming of great odds to bring the team to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. (The film was used in the leadership course I took in November to demonstrate many aspects of good leadership.)

The advertising of the fragrance includes this video of rather gorgeous Nick Youngquest, an Australian model and former professional rugby league footballer.

Well, I guess Shaun Dooley can at least smell like him.

27 thoughts on “Richard to Rugby”

  2. Sue, I actually saw Ultimate Force and did not think it was all that bad! Richard is young in it
    and still learning his acting chops but cheesy as some of it was I thought it wasn’t half bad and worth a look if and when you have the time!!
    I remember the very sex laced Invictus commercials a few years ago with the warrior god coming into the room and the group of women cloaked and then uncloaked fade to
    black! Ugh….
    hope you had a great weekend! Always live your blog posts!! ❤️😘😘

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  3. Brilliant connection of not-so-random rugby-related Richarding. I will check out Ultimate Forcewhen I get a chance regardless. It can’t all be Shakespeare. 😉

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  4. Yeah, Ultimate Force is not really recommended watching… except for those shorts. Mind you, I do enjoy a bit of Rugby. (It’s hard to escape the sport when you are living in Ireland…) Something that can probably not be said about Richard – he didn’t look fully committed to playing…

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      • *eeeek* seriously??????? Geez, damn, I can’t believe I am so wrong. He really didn’t look to me as if he was playing with full body exertion. (And I don’t know why, but I would have *never* put him down as “one of the lads”, one of those blokes who sit on a sofa, holding bottles of bear, shouting over each other while watching rugby. But hey, first-hand facts!)

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          • Cheers for linking that! (Not to others who want to read the article: Hotlink doesn’t work, but just copy and paste the link and you can read it on RAnet!)
            And can I just say one thing: The whole article just really makes me scratch my head in wonder. It reads all a little bit too hetero-macho to me… the lads on the sofa, watching rugby. Nigella Lawson in a dressing gown, licking her fingers. *corrrr* Keeley Kawes/discovering girls reference. Pizza and beer. YEAH, RIGHT… ‘Entourage’ is his professional life as a TV show… Seriously, I am shaking my head here. Looks to me as if Richard had lots of fun choosing things that were as far away from the truth as possible…
            What’s your take, Serv? Or am I just being mean about my perceived image of him?

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            • Ali’s site doesn’t allow hotlinking.

              First, this piece is from 2009, so I would read it in the context of other things he was saying in 2009 and concerns he had then. I won’t go on about that in detail, but there was a lot of deflection going on in his interviews in 2006-09, when he sort of hit the jackpot in terms of the BBC, and a lot of it was about his personal relationships. Overall, his press often created the impression toward the end of that period that he was frustrated. Sarcasm / joking often reflects certain kinds of truth (I say this as someone who frequently turns to sarcasm or spoofs as a way of saying something I can’t say directly). That means that not everything is to be taken literally; that doesn’t, however, mean it is automatically to be understood as false.

              Second, he’s being asked specifically about TV. It’s been a fairly consistent undercurrent that he has an ambivalent relationship with TV (elsewhere: reference his sarcastic red carpet statement about QVC, telling Zoe Kazan he doesn’t watch much, telling iirc Marlise Boland that he tries to keep it off because he doesn’t want to get addicted; conflicting statements about Spooks — did he watch it before being cast, or not? He’s said both). Dislike of reality TV is consistent (elsewhere: statements that it has killed drama on British TV, saying he would never appear on a show as himself or in a one man show). The point about Keeley Hawes isn’t that she’s his age, but rather that in Ashes to Ashes she plays a character who reminds him of a feeling he had in the 1980s (if you haven’t seen the show, I’d watch it — I bought the DVDs because of this statement and watched a few episodes. It’s very period and I can see what he means).

              re: rugby, it’s been my general impression that he’s not much into sport beyond what was required at school. He stated he didn’t play in any sports team as a young person and his statements about Leicester City seem to indicate a more casual relationship with the team (than, say, his brother, who plays or played in the local cricket club, too). He played rugby at school (I assume as part of a class) but had to get tips from a friend. I can imagine without any trouble that he might be a casual viewer of the game without any trouble, but i don’t think this is a statement about rugby so much as it is about socializing. The theme of the last three answers seems to be sociability — Friends, It’s a Knockout, and Entourage all reflect “group” elements. I would read this as indicating that he prefers to watch tv or spend time in small groups of people he knows well, having fun. That’s not necessarily an indication of “hetero macho” sociability, although it could be; straight men are not the only people who prefer to socialize in groups.

              I’m sure there are other contexts here that I am neglecting or that are unknown to me, too.

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              • Interesting! Thank you for the long answer. It all sounds quite logical and understandable – and actually not in the way that I thought it might be motivated. I had not taken into account that it was all about TV. And yeah, I guess my prejudice-psychology really ran away with me.
                Interesting point about the rugby mention as a reason for sociability rather than an interest in sport. That makes so much sense – I remember doing a similar thing when I was a teenager.
                PS: Ashes to Ashes is good – but not as good as Life on Mars. Have you seen that? Recommended.

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                • I watched most of Life on Mars (Kaprekar30 told me that I would have a better understanding of Ashes to Ashes if I did so). It was okay, had some good moments. (I, like Armitage, am really ambivalent about television, lol.)

                  The other thing I was thinking (on my long drive) was that in the period where he was on UK TV a lot, he also did a lot of interviews like this — sort of replies to spot questions about various things that were geared to particular audiences. We don’t see much of that kind of venue for him anymore. Red is an aspirational lifestyle publication for women. That may also play a role in understanding the mood of the interview as well.

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              • I think you’re right that a lot of those statements are about socializing. I can see him getting together with the neighbours for pizza and beer while the rugby played on the TV.

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