>>At the time it was touted as support for the theory that if you have a ton of cops at a match, the fans will show up ready to fight. If there are no cops, they'll have to police themselves (or not). If things get really out of hand, they'd be on their own. Food for second thought.

Fair enough. In any case, things have changed and hooliganism in the UK is a shadow of what it was. According to one of the most notorious hooligans: "It doesn’t happen now because of the banning orders, passports being taken away. You used to get a ten-pound fine. Now you get brought before a judge in a civil case, you lose your job. You’ve got to be mad to be involved now." Makes sense. Of course that was always there in Rugby- you can't spend 5 minutes in the sport without knowing that everybody is a participant and bad behavior in the bleachers or on the pitch means you get to go and do something else.