the land down under

[gene]

I'm sitting here doing paper work for my upholstery business. This is what makes this topic upholstery related.

I've got a rugby game on TV. It's Australia versus the good old USA. I didn't know the good old USA had a rugby team. They are playing in New Zealand, at the World Cup. I didn't now that rugby had a World Cup. (My son spent a year in New Zealand and will spend the rest of his life yelling for the Blacks.)

The score is now 35 to 4. Australia is winning. It looks like the good old USA indeed does NOT have a rugby team.

I'm wondering when this game was played, so I check on the internet and it was two days ago. It would seem that the good old USA team knows as much about rugby as I do. The final score was 67 to 5. Ouch.

I may look up the rules of rugby sometime. You can't really yell at players for doing stuff wrong when you don't now what it is that they should be doing right.

gene

[alge]

Gene, reading the rules of rugby union may not help completely it gets a little tricky around rucks and rolling mauls. Its a fantastic game to watch and play when you get up to speed. To be honest I've not played for over a decade and i get lost in the rules at least once per game i watch. Its a big game for England this weekend.

If its any help, only loosing to the aussies by 30 points isn't too bad at all for a non rugby nation.

[scottymc]

Rugby union also goes by the name of cross country wrestling. I know they play rugby in Colorado, I worked in Vail for awhile in the 80's. Rugby union is only third most popular code of football in Australia, Rugby league is second and the biggest code is Australian rules. It's amusing to point out to people from a country you have just beaten that hardly anyone is interested in rugby union compared to the other codes, so the pool of players is smaller but we can still whip them. Also there is an Australian football league in America, the American team played here a couple of weeks ago.http://www.usafl.com/

The Aussie rules Grand Final is on this saturday (friday your time) it is on espn 2&3 if you like basketball you will probably like this, they explain the rules for the international viewers, so if you have the time check it out it promises to a very good game and hope fully a close one. 

[Mike8560]

Bow is rugby played?

[scottymc]

Bow is rugby played?

I'm not really sure, I think it is similar to your football but without the commercial breaks. Allan might be able to answer that one for you.
I don't follow rugby at all , I find it is to slow. I am big fan of Australian rules, watch this and see whyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcbRFphMcYE&feature=related

[Allan]

Bloody Hell how am i going to answer this one

We have 2 codes in Australia, Rugby Union and Rugby League
Then we have aerial pingpong (Aussie Rules)

Union is similar to league with a few rule differences
League has a 5 tackle rule where after 5 tackles you put down a scrum
This is where the two teams get together you throw the ball in and you try to gain possession.

I can see you all understand  ;D ;D

In union when the player is tackled there is a ruck formed where the players try for possesion

I think I'll give up whilst I'm ahead

Allan

[Mike8560]

Don't follow sports but I alway found baseball to be slooow foot ball no  slow but basketball is fast like hockey

[gene]

I watched  NZ play Canada. Wow, NZ looked like a different kind of team. Every time they touched the ball they seemed to have a play going on without even talking about it. We need 30 seconds in a huddle to run a play. They did it automatically every time they touched the ball.

And NZ scored buy doing the scrub where they pushed the scrub into the end zone and downed the ball that was under the scrub. That was rather weird looking.

I still don't understand the game too much. A guy scored his second touchdown and they said he had two "tries". No way! I saw him score. They even gave him points. How can that be a 'try' when he actually succeeded and got points?

A 6' 1", 210 pound guy went to tackle a 6' 1", 260 pound guy and the smaller guy hit heads with the bigger guy who was carrying the ball. They both hit the ground and were not moving. The smaller guy was definitely knocked out, and the bigger guy was either knocker out or just really dazed. The announcer said it was obviously unintentional because no one would hit their head into someone elses' head like that on purpose. Duh!? They used to hit heads in American football until the players started getting paid so much money that it is now a 15 yard penalty and tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

NZ has not won a world cup since 1987 and the world cup is being played in NZ this year. Talk about pressure!!!

gene

[fragged8]

if you guys have never seen Aussie Rules Football you really need to
have a look, Rugby might be rough compared to US football but Aussie Rules
is MAD !! hehehe

you can just hear the snapping bones and ripping tendons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_hqosNvv5E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-PFRrJQtew&NR=1

Rich

[scottymc]

if you guys have never seen Aussie Rules Football you really need to
have a look, Rugby might be rough compared to US football but Aussie Rules
is MAD !! hehehe

you can just hear the snapping bones and ripping tendons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_hqosNvv5E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-PFRrJQtew&NR=1

Rich

Yep there is nothing like it, 90,000 people at the melbourne cricket ground , affectionately called the "G" and only $20 a ticket, no segregation of the fans, some times  there a bit of player and fan interactionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAE4bXMjpyQ Can't do that with a wire fence like English football.

[fragged8]

the 'G' hehe is that the G spot :-)

i don't really do sports especially soccer, but if i did it would be
Aussie rules for sure.

Do we still have wire fences ? i though after loads of people died
in a fire at Hillsborough they did away with them

[scottymc]

Yeah I reckon you might have gotten rid of them after that, that was pretty heavy. Not into soccer myself, not free flowing enough, to hard to score, bit of an arm wrestle, Aussie rules is the only sport I watch, been surfing for 40 years but can't watch a surf contest, "boring"

[Darren Henry]

been surfing for 40 years but can't watch a surf contest, "boring"

Too true,man. I used to curl ( scottish game where you slide rocks with handles on them down a sheet of ice, probably not big down there , but HUGE in rural towns and villages here) and same thing. I'd rather watch paint dry.

I watched  NZ play Canada.

Okay, I'm a hick who can't justify $45/month for 30 minutes of TV so don't have cable, but I didn't know we even had an Aussie rules team. Rugby---yeah, lacrosse----duh we invented it, not your football.

[scottymc]

Yup , Canada's got an aussie rules league, Meatloaf played at the aussie rules grand final last weekend, it was enough to turn a man vegetarian, you can have him back, he would be laughing all the way $600,000 for a 12 minute performance. 

[scottymc]

Just seen on the news this race is being seen live in america this weekendhttp://www.bathurst1000.com.au/for the first time, thought some of you petrol/rev heads might be interested there are a few U.S. drivers in it I think