Rugby

Aah, rugby, the national game of Wales.Traditionally, fifteen burly men (though many fine women's teams exist, there isn't much television coverage unfortunately)throwing themselves at the opposing fifteen equally burly men. The purpose is to run to the opposite end of a field and land on one's face placing an odd shaped ball over a white line painted on the ground in order to score five points. Then one man kicks the ball a long way over an extremely large H shaped set of posts to get a conversion for an extra two points. Points can also be scored by the same kicking method in the form of a penalty kick or a drop goal. These are worth three points. The team with the most points wins, hurrah! There are, of course, complicated aspects of the game rucking, mauling, the lineout, and scrum, but I don't understand how that all works. All I know is that it is very physical, exciting, and I tend to get a bit emotional about supporting my national team.

Well, another four years have passed so it is time for the Rugby World Cup.This year it is being held in New Zealand(known as the All Blacks, because their kit is all black, ingenious eh?!) and the host nation is the strong favorite to win- well they are awesomely brilliant.Wales, though a pretty decent side, should make it through the group stage to the quarter finals. Now I have a RSS feed to Google Reader I should be fully aware of all the little intricacies of the Rugby World Cup fever. So far, my first impression is 'too much information'. Maybe there's a way to be more selective with feeds from within a site. Some exploration is required methinks.

So my hearty best wishes go out to the other side of the world cheering on those burly fifteen men in red.

2011 Wales Rugby World Cup Squad