Wellington Hurricanes vs. Auckland Blues After much anticipation, Jayme and I were finally able to go to an official New Zealand Rugby match! Some good friends of ours, Paul and Jessica, invited us to come along to the “Wellington Hurricanes vs. Auckland Blues” Rugby match. Not knowing much about Rugby, it was an interesting thing to watch.
Rugby is a very simple game. It consists of two teams (imagine that) who are attempting to run a ball to the other end of the field (with me so far?). The only kicker is, the players can tackle to their hearts content, crashing into the opponents with a ferocity that made your author squeal in terror.
You see, Rugby players don't wear pads. That's right, it's all muscle, baby. Naturally, you'd expect no-pad tackling to create a few more injuries than normal. To be honest, I lost track after counting 10 injuries…10!
Paul was trying to explain to me how the rules in Rugby worked. No doubt it was a bit difficult for him — I kept interrupting him with all of my, “Oh man! That had to hurt!” … “Did you see that tackle! Holy Potatoes!” … “He's bleeding pretty profusely!” … “I think that guy's head just flew off!” … Thanks to Paul's patience, I was finally able to understand the basic rules of Rugby. I can see why Kiwi's are so insane over this game: 1) There are practically zero time-outs. 2) The crowds are insane.
3) Even if someone takes the opportunity to clothes-line a guy, punch him in the face, poke him in the eye, grind him with his cleat, and call his mother a bad name — he gets a small penalty and has to sit out for about 10 min. (If he doesn't insult his mother, he only sits out for 5 mins) 4) Someone always gets really hurt. Note #3.
I'm just glad I don't play rugby — maybe touch or flag rugby...
