In this football language post we explain the newspaper headline, ‘Snakes bite‘ from the Guardian newspaper about England’s win over Ireland in the Nations League. You can see more newspaper headlines here and don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
Newspaper Headlines: Snakes bite
The build up to the recent England game against Ireland in the Nations League competition was dominated by the fact that three people from the England team had previously played for Ireland. The new manager of England Lee Carsley played 40 times for Ireland around the turn of the century after qualifying through his Irish grandmother. Two of England’s midfielders, Declan Rice and Jack Grealish also played at various levels for Ireland before switching to play for the English national team. Grealish played at under-age level, while Rice also played three times for the Republic of Ireland’s senior team – he has three Irish caps.
This was the first time that England had travelled to Ireland after the two players had declared for them and the atmosphere was quite hostile beforehand as many Irish fans (not all) were angry/disappointed that the two players had made the switch. The two players had been likened to snakes as they were seen to be untrustworthy and since Ireland does not have any snakes in the country the media were likening them to snakes returning to Ireland.
England are a much better team than Ireland as can be seen from their FIFA rankings and the fact that Ireland have not qualified for a major tournament since 2012 and most people expected the Three Lions to easily win. They did but the fact that both Grealish and Rice scored made it a very painful defeat indeed. The Guardian newspaper used the idea in their headline that the players had been called snakes and turned it around by using the phrase ‘snake bite‘ which shows that snakes are not only untrustworthy but can also attack. A painful defeat for the Irish!
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