Not much happens here but it's RWC time !

[Harley]

Well, if you're from The Colonies in particular, you'd already know that the Rugby World Cup is about to kick off here in NZ next weekend.

It's a huge event for us. It's akin to having the Olympics in your own town.

Now, for those of you who support American Football or Gridiron as we call it, spare a moment to watch the key world teams tussle it out on the "footy pitch" It's certainly a different game and there's no such thing as helmets, padding for Africa and such-like but it won't take you long to pick up how it's played. One HUGE difference though is that there is NO WAY that you are allowed to pass or throw the ball forward like you can in American football. You can kick it forward - that's all.

Oh...and you will witness the real world in Rugby. A Touch-down means the ball actually has to be grounded by the scorer, not like the poncy dancing you see in Gridiron when someone runs passed a line with a ball in hand and everyone screams "Touch-down"

In actual fact we call the "touch-down" a "Try" - try and convince the referee you grounded the ball.

The team battles to look out for? When these teams clash, you are in for a good game;

England
South Africa
Scotland
France
New Zealand .....yay!
Wales
Australia
Argentina

Oh..and don't forget, countries such as USA, Canada, Russia and Italy field teams for this competition.

Worth a watch.

[Dave Non-Zero]

should be fun! better than racing cars?

[Gregory East]

Bring on the biggest party NZ has seen for quite awhile! I just hope the English will behave themselves. We got a lot of them here in town and we are hosting Ireland team and surely as many Irish here as well. With English team camped in Dunners not so far away it'll be little British Isles here for a few weeks.

Btw a "try" is originally what they used to award for a "touchdown". You got to "try" to kick the ball through the goalposts to score points. No goal, no points, go back to halfway and start again. That was a bit too droll even for us Poms and Colonists so they made the touchdown worth points in its own right, but the name stuck.

To score a try you had to put downward pressure with any part of the body. Not sure if that's still the rule but one of my Dad's favourite rugby stories was of a pivotal try being disallowed when the player dived on a free ball all spreadeagled.

The player hit the ball so hard the laces left an imprint on his chest right through his rugby jersey, no mean feat. Those things have to withstand "rucking", which is removing a wayward opponent's body from your side of the ruck pile so you can get at the ball. The prescribed method is scaping rearwards forcefully with the feet (wearing steel sprigged boots).

You can be penalised for stomping but not for rucking. The dividing line between "vigorous rucking" and stomping is blurred. Great game to watch, not so much fun on the wrong side of a ruck.

Now tackling. Imagine 260lb wall of muscle wearing little more than a shirt, sprinting and being intercepted by 260lb, wearing little more than a shirt, at most 10 degrees off of point blank. The thump is audible from way back in the stand. I think Heinekin gets its moneys worth.

[Chris_Allen]

I can't wait for it to start.

Much prefer being in a rugby crowd than a football crowd but only like playing football.

[Harley]

Much prefer being in a rugby crowd than a football crowd...

Yes Rugby crowds behave themselves well for some reason, even though the sport itself involves hard physical contact.

I could not imagine a soccer ( football for you Poms ) player lasting any more than 2 seconds in a Rugby match the way they perform like a stuck pig when they trip over on the pitch.

[Tom Smit]

Much prefer being in a rugby crowd than a football crowd...

Yes Rugby crowds behave themselves well for some reason, even though the sport itself involves hard physical contact.

I could not imagine a soccer ( football for you Poms ) player lasting any more than 2 seconds in a Rugby match the way they perform like a stuck pig when they trip over on the pitch.

Ain't that the truth!!!

[Chris_Allen]

Amateur football is much more realistic, much more physical. I wore a GPS tracker for one game, apparently I ran 7km - but error margins add up quick when you cover the same ground!

[Dan30]

So I caught the NZ vs Tonga game on TV today. It was the first rugby game I've seen all the way through. I really liked it. I thought NZ really crushed them until I heard the postgame coverage where they said it was a disappointing showing.

[LelandCrooks]

Sitting here watching Ireland vs USA, on my lunch break from the shop. Just watched Ireland dominate totally on a scrum. Not much of a clue what's going on, but it's pretty fun.

[Harley]

So I caught the NZ vs Tonga game on TV today. It was the first rugby game I've seen all the way through. I really liked it. I thought NZ really crushed them until I heard the postgame coverage where they said it was a disappointing showing.

From our perspective, it was disappointing for the All Blacks. The second half had Tonga dominate a lot of possession and slow the All Blacks ( NZ ) up. That should not have happened and other strong teams like Australia, Sth Africa and France will be very keen to see that.

The best games so far have been Argentina vs England - Argentina deserved to win as they played a far superior game, but England bumbled their way to a narrow victory somehow.

Sth Africa vs Wales last night was even more exciting and again, such a pity that the team who played better ( Wales ), missed winning by one point.

Sitting here watching Ireland vs USA, on my lunch break from the shop. Just watched Ireland dominate totally on a scrum. Not much of a clue what's going on, but it's pretty fun.

The rules regarding penalties are hard to understand, but so long as you always remember that

1) You cannot pass or throw forward ( but you can kick forward ),
2) You cannot block or tackle any player other than the one who has the ball, and
3) You cannot go forward to take the ball off the player in a maul so long as he releases the ball and gets it back to his team-mates - otherwise you'll be penalised for being 'off-side'

Leland, try and watch the games between the stronger teams which are NZ, Australia, Sth africa and France. Just see the punishment those bodies have to take

[LelandCrooks]

Not much happens here but it's RWC time !

http://news.yahoo.com/nz-naked-rugby-te ... 29217.html



The jokes are just too easy.

[Harley]

Oh...that.

Fancy being beaten by a girls' team. They really pulled off a win didn't they?

The stupid thing is that Dunedin isn't the warmest place in the country.

[Dave Non-Zero]

Time to talk about Illegal tackle?

[Harley]

Time to talk about Illegal tackle?

Here's Scotland's next encounters;

14 Sep 2011 Scotland vs Georgia @ Invercargill

01 Oct 2011 England vs Scotland @ Auckland

First game is a foregone conclusion, given that the weather there should be right up your ally as well, and the latter should be interesting given the Poms' performance against the Argies.

Exciting stuff really.

[Gregory East]

The Scotties better bring their A game. They didn't dominate Romania and Georgia thumped Romania last time they met. Local interest is high.