Rugby spirit

[Zeno]

How about proof that it happened at all. Or should we just assume that any player who is injured in the game after which they injured another player, was injured for revenge?

That sounds like a whole load of stupid, but if it makes sense to you and your multiple personalities then go ahead and assume it.

 

[waratahjesus]

i think rugby spirit is when rugby fans on a forum let stuff go and move on.

 

[James Buchanan]

i think rugby spirit is when rugby fans on a forum let stuff go and move on.

I see where you're going with that! Sort of like the shaking hands after a match bit.

 

[rugbyskier]

Like HKTiger I have come to play rugby later in life, although I'm a bigger procrastinator as it took me until the age of 42 to pull on the boots for the first time. I was a lukewarm league supporter for a while before becoming a rugby tragic after going to a Super 12 match at Canberra Stadium. I read up on the laws of the game in an attempt to be a thoughtful supporter and after a few years contemplated playing. When I found out about the ACT Veterans club I came along for a run and was hooked.

Before playing rugby I had had limited experience since childhood of playing team sports. My sporting activity had concentrated on individual based sports - skiing (both racing and instructing) and swimming/cycling/triathlons, with a bit of social touch football. I think that rugby has been a great team sport to return to, as the camaraderie is one of the game's true strengths. I have made a lot of new friendships through rugby and can travel the world meeting people through the sport. I'm going to Canada in February to ski and will have a run with an old boys club in Vancouver while I'm there.

Being such a late starter means that I'm never going to set the world on fire with my skills (as one or two on this forum can attest to) but I'm enjoying it and my team mates have been great mentors. One thing I've found is that it has given me a new appreciation of the structure of the game and the myriad of subtleties it has. This became evident when I went to a Rebels match with an old friend from Melbourne, who I had been with to a few test matches. After the match he commented that I had been talking about aspects of the game that I hadn't mentioned before, I responded that I thought that this new level of analysis came from playing and not just spectating. I've also managed to convert a couple of my instructor mates, one of whom says he can't watch league anymore because it's too one dimensional for him now and has come and had a run with us outside of the ski season.

I've blown a lot of money over the years travelling around the world to ski different places and now I'm adding travelling for rugby tournaments to my justifications for travel.

 

[Nusadan]

Like HKTiger I have come to play rugby later in life, although I'm a bigger procrastinator as it took me until the age of 42 to pull on the boots for the first time. I was a lukewarm league supporter for a while before becoming a rugby tragic after going to a Super 12 match at Canberra Stadium. I read up on the laws of the game in an attempt to be a thoughtful supporter and after a few years contemplated playing. When I found out about the ACT Veterans club I came along for a run and was hooked.

Before playing rugby I had had limited experience since childhood of playing team sports. My sporting activity had concentrated on individual based sports - skiing (both racing and instructing) and swimming/cycling/triathlons, with a bit of social touch football. I think that rugby has been a great team sport to return to, as the camaraderie is one of the game's true strengths. I have made a lot of new friendships through rugby and can travel the world meeting people through the sport. I'm going to Canada in February to ski and will have a run with an old boys club in Vancouver while I'm there.

Being such a late starter means that I'm never going to set the world on fire with my skills (as one or two on this forum can attest to) but I'm enjoying it and my team mates have been great mentors. One thing I've found is that it has given me a new appreciation of the structure of the game and the myriad of subtleties it has. This became evident when I went to a Rebels match with an old friend from Melbourne, who I had been with to a few test matches. After the match he commented that I had been talking about aspects of the game that I hadn't mentioned before, I responded that I thought that this new level of analysis came from playing and not just spectating. I've also managed to convert a couple of my instructor mates, one of whom says he can't watch league anymore because it's too one dimensional for him now and has come and had a run with us outside of the ski season.

I've blown a lot of money over the years travelling around the world to ski different places and now I'm adding travelling for rugby tournaments to my justifications for travel.

You put me to shame, I stopped playing finally when I was 38, although had few years off when raising kids...and here you are starting at age 42...but I can console myself that I'm refereeing nowadays, albeit of the novice kind...

 

[Swat]

I'm probably one of the only people on here who has never played a game of rugby in his life....

 

[Jnor]

Get out there son!

PS two or three of my mates who've never played before are thinking of coming down to my club for a run next season, just drag a mate along and do it

 

[light]

I'm probably one of the only people on here who has never played a game of rugby in his life....

Same until I was 15 and haven't tried again since, Swat. Hated the physicality but got obsessed with the game itself, I prefer the sidelines anyway.

 

[Swat]

Get out there son!

PS two or three of my mates who've never played before are thinking of coming down to my club for a run next season, just drag a mate along and do it

Believe me, would if I could. I was born with a rare bone growth disorder called Trevor's Disease (only 20 people in Australia have it). Essentially it means I've got bone growing into bone in my left knee (it's like walking constantly on a broken leg). I'm 24 and would have spent more than a 10th of my life on crutches, had 4 major surgeries by 16. Doctor's thought I wouldn't be able to walk as I got older but you'd never know it if you look in the boot of my car (always stocked with a pump, a footy, basketball, cricket kit and tennis racket as a minimum). I still manage to play rep cricket as a fast bowler even though my front leg doesn't straighten or bend fully and if I train more than once a week it's normally still too swollen to play. That said, I had to stop skiing at 12 (was skiing at a national level - grew up in the snowy mountains) when I busted my knee and didn't walk for 18 months, had atrophy in both legs and had to go through 4 years of physio. Basically if my leg bends backwards in a tackle I'm looking a repeating that situation so I'm pretty sure I get the Doctor's note on this one.

 

[Jnor]

Shit mate, really sorry to hear that. Best of luck with it, congrats on still being able to do so much. I tip my hat

 

[Swat]

Thanks Jnor. Its nothing really compared to a lot of people, I'm lucky too that I was born in a 1st world country as I'd be dead right now if I was born into poverty.

 

[Nusadan]

Same until I was 15 and haven't tried again since, Swat. Hated the physicality but got obsessed with the game itself, I prefer the sidelines anyway.

How about becoming a referee, light?

 

[Braveheart81]

I still manage to play rep cricket as a fast bowler even though my front leg doesn't straighten or bend fully and if I train more than once a week it's normally still too swollen to play.

Where do you play your cricket these days?

 

[Swat]

Where do you play your cricket these days?

Just moved to Sydney and had no one to play for so ended up joining the winter LMS comp, made the rep team for North Syd. Looks like I'll be playing for the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club in summer although I guy from Lindfield is trying to recruit me (but no idea what grade - played country plate rep in Riverina but I don't know how I'll go up here) Do you play in syd?

 

[yourmatesam]

Just moved to Sydney and had no one to play for so ended up joining the winter LMS comp, made the rep team for North Syd. Looks like I'll be playing for the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club in summer although I guy from Lindfield is trying to recruit me (but no idea what grade - played country plate rep in Riverina but I don't know how I'll go up here) Do you play in syd?

Are you from the Riverina Swat? Where did you play cricket at?

 

[Swat]

I'm was actually outside the Riverina in the South West Slopes (was 135 km out from wagga - bit too far to travel for cricket) but played country plate rep and des kennedy shield for Tumbarumba District Cricket Association and we normally play Tumut, Gundagai and Holbrook districts. Have had to travel as far as Cobram and Gunnedah with that side though.

 

[light]

How about becoming a referee, light?

Haha yeah just came from the Stu Dickinson thread to this and your comment caught me off guard. Safe to say I won't be progressing up the ranks anytime soon but I have been doing it at school level (did my first, first XV side this year ) for the past 4 years.

 

[yourmatesam]

I'm was actually outside the Riverina in the South West Slopes (was 135 km out from wagga - bit too far to travel for cricket) but played country plate rep and des kennedy shield for Tumbarumba District Cricket Association and we normally play Tumut, Gundagai and Holbrook districts. Have had to travel as far as Cobram and Gunnedah with that side though.

You may have run into the Chapman boys at Tumut then mate?

 

[Swat]

You may have run into the Chapman boys at Tumut then mate?

Probably played them, don't know who they are tho...

 

[#1?]

Boo Hiss to the IRB over mouthguard gate. That is not the Rugby spirit.

While most of the Samoan's are professional players, it has been reported somewhere else that they are getting bugger all to play in the World Cup.

This is the rugby spirit. A Sausage sizzle to pay the bill.
Wonder when the IRB committee members last had a sausage from the BBQ? Last sausage they had was probably a lobster sausage lightly char grilled and served on a bed of cous cous with organic rocket on the side. IRB = IOC?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/around-the-cup/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503176&objectid=10755741

A Samoan company will pay most of a $10,000 fine slapped on the Samoan team by the International Rugby Board because a player wore a mouthguard at the Rugby World Cup which displayed a sponsor's name.

Giant Samoan winger Alesana Tuilagi wore the non-approved shield in his side's 27-7 win over Fiji on Sunday.

Digicel Samoa, a mobile phone provider, pledged $7000 towards the fine yesterday amid a chorus of criticism levelled at the IRB for its punishment of the cash-strapped Samoans.

The $10,000 fine came as England avoided sanctions after they illegally switched the ball for conversion attempts against Romania.

Dr Anthony Lovat, dentist and founder of Opro mouthguards, which supplied Tuilagi's shield, said the fine was "ridiculously harsh".

"Tuilagi has worn that mouth guard for years, he's used to it, comfortable with it."

Dr Lovat said his firm was trying to contact the Samoan Rugby Union to offer to pay the $10,000 fine - not a bad trade given the publicity the IRB had inadvertently given his company.


"We know it's hit the press in the UK already. It may not do us any harm, but at the end of the day we're smiling on one hand, but on the other hand it's so harsh, but that's the big corporate world, isn't it?"

Tuilagi's teammate Eliota Sapolu took to Twitter to slam the decision as "commercialisation overcoming all reason and rationale".

He tweeted: "Rules are not rules. They must be just. [If suffragette] Kate Sheppard accepted the rule that women cannot vote it would still be the case now. Question!"

Samoa team media manager Fatu Tauafiafi said Tuilagi was called before the IRB's match commissioner and he expected team management would meet rugby's ruling body.

Mr Tauafiafi said a Samoan player was fined at the 2007 World Cup for using headgear with unauthorised branding, and players were talked through rules on logos before this year's tournament.

The IRB's terms of participation allow manufacturers' logos to be visible on basic kit such as jerseys, shorts, socks and boots if earlier approval is sought. Items such as Lycra undershorts or mouthguards must be "clean" from branding.

The Weekend Herald understands teams have been fined at previous tournaments because players wore branded mouthguards.

The IRB said the rules were "well understood by the participating teams and are in line with other major sporting events".

Samoa Rugby Union chief executive Peter Schuster said the fine was a lot of money for a mouthguard, "but we must abide with the Rugby World Cup policies".

TV3's Campbell Live ran a sausage sizzle on Ponsonby Rd yesterday to help raise the $10,000 to cover the fine for the Samoans.

With some people buying a sausage for $300 and the Digicel Samoa donation, the $10,000 target was reached before kick-off last night.