Rugby!!

So the end of playing and start of studying was marked by the All Blacks game against Australia. Saturday was a day of rugby starting with the Nude Blacks playing a game of rugby in the park near by. I decided to use that time to study so I missed out on that. But that evening my flat got excited to head to the stadium and watch the game. Walking to the game was just like game day during football stadium. People dressed up, singing, drinking, and having a good time. We got there for the national anthems. I feel like that is the one time you can easily see who's not from the countries playing. The All Blacks did their haka but we only saw their backs because we were sitting behind the try line. The game started and the All Blacks came out on top. We were told it was a really high scoring game. Australia did not really have a chance. The only complaint was that the atmosphere in the stadium was a lot less than I am used to. Yes I do watch Timbers games and see that atmosphere but I was expecting a bit more from the Kiwi. Alex also said he was disappointed with the atmosphere. I mean it's NZ against their biggest rivals.

The next day Otago played Hawke's Bay again in the semi-final for the cup that they played for. This game was more exciting and a few shoving matches/fights broke out. There were also about 20 dudes in front of us either wearing onzies or dresses. They made the game more entertaining. Otago lost again which was a bit disappointing but guess that's what happens when you don't play well. After the game fans were allowed on the field to meet the players.

The next day Uni Flats put on a game of rugby league. We were supposed to play with just holds, not tackles, but we ended up playing with tackles. There were 2 girls playing and most of the dudes either played rugby or american football. I was the smallest by a lot. But the guys were all nice and after every tackle even if I was the one going after them, they made sure I was okay. They also didn't tackle me too much. They just held me because I wasn't able to get away from them. The guy organizing the game told me that I seem to be involved in the biggest tackles. Didn't want to tell him that's how physics and momentum works. I only came out of that game with a few bruises. Didn't hurt myself!!!

Earlier in the term Uni Flats got a team together for touch games. The rec. center would host games each week and had teams come play. It was fun but we were by far the worst team. The only close match was when the 2 Uni Flats teams played each other. The other teams/refs would help us out some once they got up by a lot of tries. It is obvious we have no idea what we are doing because it was mostly Americans on the teams. It was still a lot of fun and I didn't hurt myself doing that either. But I did mange to run into at least on guy on the other team each time. And running into a person sometimes involved slapping them instead of just a touch. One of the dudes happened to be the tutor for the Maori performance paper. Oops :)

Here are some pics:

I'm totally the right size to play rugby

Warm up time.

At halftime 

Going for the penalty