the rugby

a few weeks ago, my friend gill and i went to see "the western force" play rugby. or as australians would say, i went to "the rugby". i find it odd that they say it like that, because it makes me think i'm going to a place rather then an event, but i've been living here long enough to know that it's just a silly aussie-ism.

anyhow, one of my clients just happens to be a member at "the rugby" and also happened to be out of town for a weekend. she was kind enough to offer me her pass and luckily one of her mates scored me another one. we had pretty prime seats, what with being in the member section. we were essentially centre field and only about 8 rows away from the pitch.

the western force are WA's contribution to the Super 14- the largest rugby union club championship in the southern hemisphere (thanks wiki...). it consists of 4 australian teams, 5 new zealand teams and 5 south african teams. and it's rugby as we know it (different from rugby league, which is a whole other ball game... literally).

i would relate the force to being like the leafs. it doesn't matter how badly they do during a season, the game is still sold out and the fans are still incredibly hard core. the stadium was packed with blue jerseys and hats, and fans were vehemently cursing the refs for "bad calls" and unwarranted penalties. i think it's funny that the loudest bloke there is always the one who looks the least like he's ever touched a ball in his life... but who am i to judge?

needless to say, they lost the game. it was pretty close however, and if i am to be a true perthite, i'll even say that they were robbed. they had 2 tris that were declared false, and they lost the game by one tri.

the event itself was good times. i laughed when the crowd heckled the "old guy" on the opposing team (an aging 30...), i looked on nerdily when the team physio was dealing with the injuries (and boy, there were a lot!), was amazed when the players hoist their teammates so high during a line-out and never stopped being fascinated by the fact that men of that size can run so fast for so long.

will i go see another game? probably not, i'm too cheap. but i did enjoy this one.
xo