RUGBY

Hello Everybody,
     It's been in the works for a long time, but I'm back. Let's start off with Rugby. On the 18th of August, I went with two other international students to the Wallabies vs. All Blacks game. It was an incredible event. Initially, I had a hard time deciding who I was going to root for. Being from America, I knew very little about rugby, but I did know about the All Blacks. A friend of mine was especially keen on their pre-game ritual, the Haka  so I thought of rooting for the All Blacks. However, while discussing my conundrum with another international student I completely changed my opinion. Paraphrasing of course, he said "Rooting for the All Blacks and not being from New Zealand is like rooting for the Yankees and not living in New York." That statement resonated and shook me to my very core. If my father has taught me anything or Uncle for that matter, it's that the Yankees are not to be rooted for or tolerated under any circumstances. So I went down to the local grocery store and bought some green and yellow for the game (the commonwealth colors worn by the Wallabies and Australian Olympians). The game was held at the Olympic Stadium which was a pretty impressive place, although it wasn't quite as big as it was when it held the Olympics. The atmosphere was intense. I'd say that attendance,76K+,  was split 60/40 Wallabies/All Blacks, quite a high turnout for the "away" team. Once they performed both the Australian and the New Zealand  national anthem, the game began. The Wallabies never really threatened at any point in the game, although New Zealand squandered plenty of opportunities. The home crowd was shushed for most of the game, but everyone was on their A game for the Wave. We must have done the wave 10 times in a row, a personal sports event record. The crowd was quite rowdy and everyone was having a great time, except perhaps the die hard Wallabies fans, however they knew it was coming. I figured out most of the game the night before watching NRL teams play, but I still ended up clapping for the wrong team at the wrong time on a few occasions. In my defense, it was hard to distinguish who was yelling for joy or out of anger in the stands. All in all, it was a great experience and I'll have to make it to another rugby game. I still won't stand for the argument that rugby players are better athletes than American Football players, but I'll let the Aussies  Kiwis have their game and I really respect it. It looks way more brutal than Football, I can tell you that, but I guess having free health care comes in handy. The final score: Wallabies 16 All Blacks 24.

p.s. Getting on the train to go home looked and felt a lot like this.