Rugby (the religion of Wales) and its influence on the Catholic church: should Pope Benedict XVI be worried?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2768

Published 17 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2768
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2768

Research

Christmas 2008: Sport

Rugby (the religion of Wales) and its influence on the Catholic church: should Pope Benedict XVI be worried?

Gareth C Payne, specialist registrar in clinical neurophysiology¹, Rebecca E Payne, general practitioner², Daniel M Farewell, MRC/WAG training fellow in health services research/health of the public³

¹ Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Hospital Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XW, ² Cardiff, ³ Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF14 4YS

Correspondence to: G C Payne garethpayne{at}doctors.org.uk

Objective To explore the perceived wisdom that papal mortalityis related to the success of the Welsh rugby union team.

Design Retrospective observational study of historical Vaticanand sporting data.

Main outcome measure Papal deaths between 1883 and the presentday.

Results There is no evidence of a link between papal deathsand any home nation grand slams (when one nation succeeds inbeating all other competing teams in every match). There was,however, weak statistical evidence to support an associationbetween Welsh performance and the number of papal deaths.

Conclusion Given the dominant Welsh performances of 2008, theVatican medical team should take special care of the pontiffthis Christmas.

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This article has been cited by other articles:

Keeley, P. W (2009). Effect of the Pope who would not die on Welsh rugby. BMJ 338: b38-b38 [Full text]
Gianni, W., Gazzaniga, P., Zuccaro, S., Luzi, G. (2009). Don't worry, Your Holiness!. BMJ 338: b39-b39 [Full text]

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