The coin toss is right at the heart of sport. It’s the symbolic moment when the phony war ends and the real action begins, the point where words are replaced by deeds. It’s a last chance to stare your opponent squarely in the eye and perhaps seize your team a small advantage, even if it’s psychological. Win the first 50:50, show them Lady Luck is on your side.
During the Rugby World Cup 2015 there will be 48 coin tosses – one for each game, right up to the final on 31 October – and Heineken is giving 48 lucky fans from around the world a once in a lifetime opportunity: the chance to be right there in the tunnel when the coin is flipped and the call is made. That means every game starts with Heineken. It’s the closest you can get to the action without being on the pitch.
As the referee flips the coin and says, “It’s your call”, what will you be thinking? Please let us win this tiny victory? Lose this and we lose the game? Superstition is rife in sport, after all – lucky pants, lucky socks, lucky beard … change them and it’s your fault if they lose.
But how much significance can be read into calling it correctly? Statisticians spend hours over this stuff. Physicists have applied tools including the barely comprehensible Lagrangian mechanics to it. Best not to try and start a pub conversation about it.
In rugby it’s simple. The captain of the team that wins the toss gets to decide which end he wants to attack first, or who kicks off. Decisions, decisions - they can’t be avoided one way or the other. So what goes through the skipper’s mind? Kick towards your most vocal end in the second half? Not really an issue at Twickenham, where the roar could pole-axe a polar bear.
Weather has a say, especially in this country. A stiff wind will carry a kick further – crucial when it comes to those important penalties. And there will be a lot of penalties. You never know when the wind might drop or whether it will change later. And refs have a habit of pinging players early doors to remind them a) they are in charge b) to abide by the rules of the game. So, go with the wind behind you first half. Probably.
Don’t worry too much if Chris Robshaw or Sam Warburton calls it wrong. No one will blame you. If you were one of the lucky 48 you can say you played your part, the rest of us will gladly settle for the result.
And Heineken has plenty of other ways of bringing the action closer anyway, like the Heineken Rugby Studio, a digital preview and review show through which fans will receive a different perspective of Rugby World Cup 2015 from the Heineken Rugby Legends, the former international players who have been there and done it, including Matt Dawson, Will Carling and Jonah Lomu. Join in the banter via the hashtag #ItsYourCall.
There are also more chances to win Heineken’s money-can’t-buy VIP tickets to games. An experience which entails world-class pre- and post-match hospitality as well as top seats at the game for you and a friend.
The result of the coin toss may be down to chance but you can be sure of one thing - you’ll never be far from the action with Heineken.
