Welp, I would say my mind is shot from the start of Harvest and too much head trauma from rugby. But, really, I just wasn’t paying enough attention.
You played rugby?
You didn’t ask me, but I’ll answer for myself anyways. I played rugby once. I am a 6‘3“ thin guy with slow twitch muscles. It did not go well for me. It was fun as hell, but I was absolutely pummeled.
The good thing about being 6‘3“ is they are not going to put you in the front row of the scrum.
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What’s the difference between “Rugby” and “Aussie Rules Football”?
Rugby codes line up at opposite ends of the field and run into each other and have to defend the try line, a bit like US football. Aussie rules is more like Gaelic football and Hurling where players are all over the field and goals are the objective.
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Thanks, that certainly explains it. I’ll do some research and ask slightly more informed questions next time. I am curious since yall mentioned it, because I have a couple of good friends who were rugby guys in college and the 2 matches (games?) I went to 25+ years ago were brutal yet incomprehensible to an american football playing guy.
I’ve watched both on tv and honestly never paid close enough attention to discern the difference. But it’s fun to watch. I started getting into the EPL about 3 years ago (thanks, @Limey), so this is my next overseas sporting thing.
If I were to take another overseas sporting thing it would probably be to Ireland to watch the Senior Hurling Final, love that game.
I’m over in Ireland at the moment, Co. Mayo specifically and their lads just took the All-Ireland football championship from Kerry last week. It’s their first football win in 75 years and this place has been insane all week. Anyway, one of their side is headed your way soon to play a year contract with Aussie rules. Kobe McDonald.
Wow, you timed that well, I bet the Guinness is flowing.
Vincent Pastore, 80.
You can insert your sleeping with fishes / in witness protection quips here…
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That we did! We are over here at least once a year since the GF has family over here. We’ve followed the green and red for about 20 years so it’s been fun for us too.
My family origins were to Cork (go Rebs), so you have watched Hurling live?
No, but I hope to catch a match at some point. We always seem to land in the void between seasons. I haven’t seen a football match either so I’m going to work on that.
I did indeed. Played for a club in DC (Washington RFC) for about ten years until I did my knee in my early 30’s. Even played for Eastern Suburbs in Sydney for a season. Goddamn, I miss it.
Cool, never played it but loved watching thhe Wallabies in the 80’s and 90’s especially. Is it strange that I will watch Union but can’y abide Rugby League?
Not at all. I’ve never enjoyed watching the mungoes play League. I find the game boring as bat shit because it’s all crash and bash.
I played at a decently high level here in the States. Playing for Easts down in Sydney, though, taught me what the standard is for truly high level rugby and how far below it I was. One of the reasons I wanted to play in Aussie was because of those Wallabies’ teams from the 90’s. Watching guys like Tim Horan and David Campese helped me fall in love with rugby.
Different note, do you remember the International Rules Series (the annual clash between Australia and Ireland playing a hybrid game of Aussie Rules and Gaelic Football)? Never watched it, but the game was pretty entertaining. Don’t think they play it any more, though.
I’ve couple of good friends from my college days in Oklahoma that were/are really into Rugby and I watched a few games involving them. One was in Denver when he got into the sport, the other was in OKC. At some point about 30 years ago, we were all in OKC at the same time and I introduced them. They have since become best buds and have even traveled to Scotland, and New Zealand with a group of other cultists, just for the purpose of watching games.
I love them already. Despite the Oklahoma thing.
There have been a few attempts to turn International Rules into a thing. I never really liked it and only watched the first series. The problem for me was that the Micks had too big of an advantage using the round ball, that made their run and carry game easier to play. The Micks also thought the Aussies played a too physical type of game and constantly whined about it, except when a punch up started and they forgot their objections. I sometime wonder how Aussie Rules ended up the way it did, vey likely a bunch of yahoos wanted to play some gaelic but couldn’t find a round ball and said fuck it, we’ll use a rugby ball instead… haven’t got a ladder to put up a crossbar on the goal posts so we’ll stick a couple extra posts in the ground.
I go back and forth on my favourite rugby player, the popular choice for greatest Wallaby was/is John Eales but I liked Roger Gould who was the Wallabies full back when I first started watching and Tim Gavin was a great player as well. I was glad Campo didn’t get killed when he switched from wing to full back, it must be scary standing under a high kick waiting for the ball to come down when you’re his size. I don’t have any real rugby expertise but I’m glad I went to see the Wallabies last month, like a lot of sports there is a lot more happening off the camera shot that you realise. What position did you play?