Do rugby players take their rugby ears off?

As I am sure you may be aware over the last few weeks it has been the rugby world cup. I’m not really into rugby but my husband is and I had taken part on the sweepstake at work (I got Georgia at 500/1 chance of winning in case you are wondering) so we did have it on the TV quite a bit. And my son loves sport, any kind of sport so he got quite in to it. He was most interested in why the rugby players ears looked how they did.

“What’s wrong with their ears?”

I know the answer is they are called cauliflower ears which is an ear that looks like it has transformed into a cauliflower….I am not actually sure they do look like cauliflowers but that is what they are called…..

cauliflower ear
noun
plural noun: cauliflower ears
a person’s ear that has become thickened or deformed as a result of repeated blows, typically in boxing or rugby.

But rather than have to explain to my son that they were called cauliflower ears, and what a cauliflower is (he wouldn’t know as he only eats carrots) I simply called them rugby ears. I explained that people who played rugby or did boxing had ears like that. He looked puzzled but accepted my answer. Everytime we watched the rugby after that he would say:

“Urgh look at those ears”

“Rugby ears look funny”

Then one day after the game we watched one of the players being interviewed. This particular player was dressed smart after the game and he had quite bad “rugby ears”. My son watched, looked puzzled and asked:

“Do they take their rugby ears off?”

Do they take their rugby ears off?!?! I realised he thought that rugby ears were something they wore during the match that they then took off a bit like those helmets they also wear to protect their heads. And he couldn’t understand why this player still had his ears “on”. I had to explain that the rugby ears were their ears, they had just changed how they looked. I still don’t think he got and I’m not sure he ever will. It has amused me for days to think of the rugby players going in the dressing room after a match and throwing their ears off!!!

And although not a full blog post,and out of my usual schedule of writing I just had to write about it because it’s hilarious. I will forever think of rugby players taking their ears off after a match.

Will I ever eat cauliflower again without thinking of this conversation?!?!