From the The Metro today...

Flukey

These two letters were in the paper today:

Is rugby really a game? It is only played in about 10 countries, the ball isn't round, the backs score, not the forwards, the idea seems to be to kick the ball out of the playing pitch, you throw the ball backwards to go forward, there is goalposts but no goalkeeper, you can score anywhere you want, the referee points in the wrong direction for frees and the fastest players on the pitch seem to be the only ones that never touch the ball. However, all this doesn't matter - because we are better than England.

**************************************

I have lived in Ireland for the past eight months as an ex-pat from the US. This is an excerpt from an e-mail my buddy sent about his visit here last week. I think what he said captures the match on Saturday perfectly. He wrote:

We don't have a game here in the United States that rivals the game between Ireland and England. The city was absolutely abuzz and people everywhere were talking about the match, with bright green jerseys seen everywhere.

Pubs were filled to the brim, with locals packed in like sardines, watching big screens and drinking plenty of Guinness. We were actually shut out of the first pub we tried. We made it into our second one, a pub below ground underneath the Lansdowne Hotel. Not one of the most popular gathering points, this pub still had multiple rooms filled, forcing us to stand most of the time and strain our necks to see the screens.

Rugby is definitely a quicker game than I realised. With two 40min halves (clock running non-stop), the game barely took over and hour and a half. And those gagantuan oafs run around smashing heads with minimal padding - none of the sissy padding us Yansk wear.

Ireland took a 16 - 3 lead after 40 min and you could feel the excitement begin to swell in the over-crowded pub. As the lead quickly surged to over 20 points, songs started to break out with the whole room chanting and swaying, standing up in exultation with every score.

The final score of 43 - 13 was the largest margin of victory ever for Ireland. As we left the pub, cheers of IIIII-RE-LAND rippled through the streets, with crowds emerging from the drinking holes on mobiles to share the joy. It was one of the greatest sporting experiences I've ever witnessed in my life.

GreenHell

The first one sounds like a soccer fan coming to terms with rugby.

tHE vAGGABOND

two good letters

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Flukey

A lot of that could be applied to other sports too DaveIrl. Anyway, the key thing is the last line.

Steffano2002

The first one is cr@p... The second one is really good I thought. Yet another american realising how poor the sports in the US are!

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Diamondmaker

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

No its not its just ironinc and funny I think. I wrote an ironic prose on rugby with similar points for my leaving all those years ago.
It was clearly toungue in cheek and simlar to above. I think th writer is having a laugh.

Marshy

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Yeah but with such commercial involvement it makes it very stop-start. They manage to drag an hours play into 3 hours because of adds etc. I'd imagine it'd be unusual for it to last throughout, unlike saturday.
Though I've never been to a game so I wouldnt be sure. Thats the drawback to sport in the states, its all about keeping the sponsors happy.

Chucky the tree

It doesnt matter as Americans are used to it. They still cheer as loud in the 4th quarter as they did in the first(unless there getting a hiding obviously). Some of the divisional matches would have a cracking atmosphere.

Steffano2002

How can anybody watch a sport where 2 teams play for 10 seconds out of every 2 minutes is beyond me... I'll watch the 4-minute sum up of the game alright! That's about it though... And don't get me started on baseball...

komodosp

American rules isn't so bad, (though the fact that there are stoppages for Ad-breaks is very annoying!), it's Baseball that I can't understand the appeal of...

Is rugby really a game?

How could rugby be a game? The rules are different from soccer, for God's sake!

Benedict XVI

Steffano2002 wrote:

How can anybody watch a sport where 2 teams play for 10 seconds out of every 2 minutes is beyond me... I'll watch the 4-minute sum up of the game alright! That's about it though... And don't get me started on baseball...

You have to take the game as it is played and on it’s merits, no reason to watch an American Football game expecting it to be like a rugby game. A game does not have to be fast moving to make it exciting and interesting.

And the main reason the clock stops in American Football is because the ball is not in play, not for commercial reasons. The commercials take advantage of these times when the clock is stopped

Flukey

It stops too often though. It's more like a game of chess at times than a field sport. Rugby at its worst can be very stop-start, but nothing compared to what you see in American Football, and that is not on the base of a direct comparison of the two games and expecting them to be similar. American is just too slow and you get very little momentum or continuity going in it. There is no other field sport that is really like that. Most of them have much more free flowing with long periods of play, and some can be extremely fast and end to end in seconds. I've had Americans at Gaelic Football matches and they could not believe the pace of it. When they see a Hurling match, that really blows them away. Even English soccer fans seeing Gaelic Football for the first time are surprised at the speed of it by comparison to soccer.

smashey

The Americans play their own sports and call the winners world champions. At least rugby is played in "10 countries". :rolleyes:

davyjose

Benedict XVI wrote:

You have to take the game as it is played and on it’s merits, no reason to watch an American Football game expecting it to be like a rugby game. A game does not have to be fast moving to make it exciting and interesting.

I agree. The tactical nous to American Football is often underrated. True, the clock does stop for a bit too long, but still is a decent game.
Watched the Superbowl from a bar a few years ago, and the gaps allow for banter and discussions between plays.

Steffano2002

Benedict XVI wrote:

You have to take the game as it is played and on it’s merits, no reason to watch an American Football game expecting it to be like a rugby game. A game does not have to be fast moving to make it exciting and interesting.

And the main reason the clock stops in American Football is because the ball is not in play, not for commercial reasons. The commercials take advantage of these times when the clock is stopped

What he said:

Flukey wrote:

It stops too often though. It's more like a game of chess at times than a field sport. Rugby at its worst can be very stop-start, but nothing compared to what you see in American Football, and that is not on the base of a direct comparison of the two games and expecting them to be similar. American is just too slow and you get very little momentum or continuity going in it. There is no other field sport that is really like that. Most of them have much more free flowing with long periods of play, and some can be extremely fast and end to end in seconds. I've had Americans at Gaelic Football matches and they could not believe the pace of it. When they see a Hurling match, that really blows them away. Even English soccer fans seeing Gaelic Football for the first time are surprised at the speed of it by comparison to soccer.