Friday, February 4th, 2011
While in Australia I'm trying to expose myself to some new things.......well not the snakes but the sporting events at least. I was hoping to catch the AFL (Aussie Rules Football) All Star game involving the Indigenous All Stars. However, it turns out that there has been too much rain and the field as too wet so the Footie boys could not play. However, that didn't stop the Rugby Union boys so I suggested to Debi and Scott that we check out a game. Scott didn't seem too keen at first but I think Deb talked him into it. The Rugby Union doesn't often play up here (and the players found the weather a little hot and sticky) so it was a bit of a treat for the rugby fans in Darwin and a bonus for tourists like me (and Debi and Scott by default).
Here you can mostly see members of the Queensland Reds, but in there as well, dressed in blue and white are the CA Technologies Brumbies (from Canberra). The guy in green is the ref.
So Friday night we headed off to catch the game. You can get general admission tickets for $20. That means you can watch from pretty much any where you want (except the seats) and move around if you so choose. At first we grabbed some end zone seats (and all the play was at the far end of the pitch) and then Scott ran into Kyle and Zoe, who were watching the game from next to one of the players boxes. This was a much better vantage point so we headed over there with them.
Scott, Zoe and Kyle enjoying the game.
Debi and Scott having a laugh during the game.
Immediately behind me are Reds players Radike Samo (with the afro) and Saia Faingaa. Saia plays for the Reds as well as the Wallabies (which is the Australian National Team). He is joined on both teams by his identical twin brother Anthony (well almost identical. Saia has long braids and Anthony has very short hair). They are the 3rd set of twins to represent Australia in rugby. Radike is one of the oldest players on the team.....at the ripe old rage of 35. He has played professional rugby for a long time in Japan and France as well as here in Australia. Rugby certainly is a young mans' game. You don't often see men in their mid and late 30's playing at this level.
Maybe I better mention that I did not know a thing about Rugby when we walked into the stadium except that it is sort of, kind of, like football but the players don't wear pads........and there are about 3 million different rules.....and the ball is slightly different. I quickly racked Debi's brain for information. Some of you may remember that Debi played rugby for a year while at the University of Lethbridge. However, she was the first to admit that it had been a long time ago and she had trouble remember some things about the game. But she gave me some basics.
Hanging with the uprights. Similar to Canadian (or American) football except they are taller and narrower.
The first thing to know.....players can only pass the ball backwards. To move the ball forward you have to kick it......or be running.
Following the ball. The game is very quick. Just seems to keep moving. They don't stop and line back up like in football.
Also when a player scores it is called a try. To score a try the player must cross the goal line and "down" the ball (place the ball on the ground and have their hand on the ball). A try is worth 5 points.
This is a scrum (I knew that before I got to the game). I'm still not sure when a scrum is called for but I'm told basically it happens when "a mistake" is made. One team will dropped the ball into the scrum and hope their team comes up with the ball.
A conversion is scored by the ball being kicked through the uprights after a try. It is worth 2 points. A conversion will be kicked from the location that the try was scored at. Sometimes a player will not actually cross the goal line right away but will run closer to the uprights before crossing the goal line.A little video of a conversion attempt. 2 of the Reds' 38 points. The Brumbies could only muster up 5 points.
The game normally consists of two 40 minute halves, however this was only a preseason game so they played four 20 minute quarters.
Not sure why the big strong man is wearing a sports bra......but I wasn't going to ask him.
And honestly that is a far as I got. There are a whole lot more rules to learn but I found these to be the most important.........on the day. I still don't get the penalties. I still can't seem to figure out when one team has to kick it away and the other team gets to have it and a few other things.
I'm pretty sure this is Guy Shepherdson but it could also be Jake Schatz or Rob Simmons or a handful of other players.....come on how am I suppose to know. White guys all look the same.
One more look at Radike and Saia just because I think they deserve a second look.
What I do know is that it is a really fast game and it was a lot of fun to watch.......and the players do in fact wear really little shorts.Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment