It's the was you tell 'em...storytelling from the touchline.

Abstract

Storytelling as a mode of research is the focus of this paper, but centred upon the topic of rugby; more specifically, the touch-line culture of Rugby Football League. This article, which is a development in ongoing PhD research, provides a glimpse in to the social complexities of (i) some youths playing the game, (ii) some parents emotional investments in their offspring to play the game, and (iii) the attitudes and behaviours of some match officials. The stories reveal some aspects of lived experience in this social arena, but in the boiling-pot of competition, expectations, and, the mud and sweat of physical and mental effort. The take home message from this strategy in research is not to merely tell or report upon goings on, but to show and reveal aspects this social phenomenon in a way that may have some resonance with the people within it. From an ethical stance of striving for greater good, if this research can act as a mirror for some unsavoury touch-line behaviour, it may help to bring about change within that social world.