Readers of this blog might be surprised to see an unusual subject – Rugby - of this post. But, the result of Saturday’s Rugby League world cup final is surely one of the major upsets in 2008. And yes, here’s an Indian rejoicing over Kangaroos being floored by the Kiwi’s.
Like most of Indian sports lovers, I know very little about Rugby. I only know that there’s something called Rugby League and Rugby Union. The only reference to Rugby comes when you follow the interests of Cricketers from southern hemisphere – South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Obviously Rugby is not for Indians. It is too physical a sport for their comfort. The Indian Psyche is best suited for a leisurely sport like Cricket where even a T20 game lasting for three hours is ‘fast paced’ Forget the body tackles, even a physical contact is asking for punishment, as Gautam Gambhir learnt a hard way. But this news of All Blacks toppling hot favourites Kangaroos to win the World cup suddenly attracted my attention and there was this feeling of ‘O these bigheaded Aussies! They deserve it’
The Guardian reports that following one sided defeats of England and New Zealand in the league stages, the Aussie media was suggesting a Rest of World XIII to have a semblance of contest with the Australian team. But in the final, the Black caps really turned it on to pull off a major upset and delight to the Kiwi public.
The Kiwi public could well have a double delight had their Cricketers not let the Ricky Ponting’s men off the hook. At the end of second day’s play of the recently concluded test match in Brisbane, New Zealand clearly had upper hand. Probably Vettori and his men could not withstand ‘the victory staring in their eyes’ and in the end surrendered meekly.
This year 2008 has not been particularly good for Australian sport. Their all conquering Hockey team lost in Olympics semi final. Their Cricket team is on the verge of losing its number one status to India. Now it has lost a prestigious World Crown in Rugby. We will wait and see how this proud nation bounces back.
Rugby League as one of my mate's describes it, as a "flea's game". It has all the athleticism you want, but it is definitely a spectator's game. What makes it harder to watch is the only real competition for Australia is NZ. Of which can only on a very good day beat Australia on a very bad day. Therefore, with the lack of depth internationally the game will never take off.
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Bobwilliams
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I love rugby! We a team at my college and I loved going to see them play. Can't wait to learn more about it
ReplyDeleteI love rugby too, unfortunately I do not have the necessary time to watch it. congratulations of the blog, it is great to be able to read everything. Nice job and keep it up.
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