It's the same old song....

I found an old song sheet from Tonbridge School inserted into a book on the history of the school today. There are some uplifting patriotic songs on it including this gem with words by A.H. Sharman and music by A. Herbert Brewer.

“The XV Song”
It is a song of ‘Rugger’ that we’re going for to sing,
And if you’ll only listen, you ill hear a curious thing,
For when we call it ‘stunning,’ we do not mean to say
That an occiput in pieces is a token of good play.
Chorus-
Scrum! Scrum! Scrum! Run! Run! Run!
It’s jolly hard work and it’s jolly good fun,
And when it is half over it’s only just begun!
Sing hey! For the gutter, and for glory!
There are another four verses of much the same kind of stuff with four more rousing choruses but I’ll just quote the final two lines and you get the idea:

…And when we’re ranked as Old Boys, with feeble limbs as such,
We’ll give Old Age the shoulder and shove him into ‘touch!’

Sweet song. Funny though ‘cos at my school we sang one which went more like this:

There was an Old Sargeant who sat on a rock
Awavin’ an’ shakin’ his big hairy
Fist at the Ladies etc....