This is a bit different to a lot of the funny anecdotes etc. in this thread, but I didn't know where else to put it.
I've been on a wee bit of a world tour for the last six months, and - to the eternal consternation of my girlfriend - whenever we meet someone I inevitably bring up rugby. This leads to a lot of great talks with travelling kiwis, aussies, saffas, Irish and poms (and the citizens of other traditional rugby nations) but the really rewarding moments have been meeting people who found and love rugby despite it being a genuine minority sport.
So in no particular order, here are the people I've met from the coal-face of the global game.
- The development officer of the Polish rugby union (great bloke - I'm still in touch with him if anyone wants to bring out a few polish players to their club or something. Huge bastards, not sure how well they go in the backs though).
- A female Canadian rugby player. I'd always heard the women's game was pretty big in Canada, but nice to see that it's true.
- An open side flanker in Guatemala. Didn't speak a word of english, and my Spanish doesn't extend to ruck interpretations, so we had to use a seriously unimpressed and disinterested American girl as a translator.
- An ex junior national rep halfback from Spain. Threw a coconut around with him for a while. Snappy pass, lots to say, short fuse. A halfback, in brief.
- An ex-American footballer from "Not Chicago" Illinois. Watched a game during the world cup (USA v Russia, I think) loved it, so found himself a rule book and a hundred odd hours of game tapes and set about learning the game. Interesting to see the effect of the world cup, but also to see how some Americans approach sport. Very analytical.
- The Argentine schoolboys squad. It's obviously a major sport for them, but I was interested to note just how big it was outside of BA. Interestingly, JOC (James O'Connor) is a really big deal over there, which I found strange since he was injured for the one RC they were involved in. Shows they go out of their way to watch other countries' international stuff.
- A super-aggressive French women's flanker. And I mean a proper French girl. This was like listening to Audrey Tatau talk about ripping someone's head off, it was surreal. Girlfriend wasn't such a fan of that one.
- A brick outhouse of a loosehead prop on copacabana beach in Rio, on new year's eve. I think he might have been about to mug us, but he changed his mind when the game came up. Rugby just paid itself off.
The one thing I consistently got from these guys is that they would love to have the resources (either in their national games or in women's rugby) that many of us take for granted. Still, it's encouraging to see the game has the potential for growth.
The quote of the trip for me goes to Tomasz, the Polish guy.
"We're getting better, but we still struggle to play against the good teams."
"What, like France?"
"No, like Belgium."
It's a different world out there.
