All blacks

All blacks

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Hell yes

Ok so we lost last weekend, but who cares. It was just one of those games and all things considered I have to agree with Ted and say we did well. Okay Grizz Wylie would have never accepted a loss, but then Grizz didnt coach in the professional age.

We are doing well for a tiny set of islands at the bottom of the pacific considering clubs like Munster, Harlquins and Pepe Leon can offer squillions to lure a promising rugby player to the chill of the Uk and France.

I was impressed with the guts of the All Blacks conidering they were missing their star captain and a number of of other senior players (through injury or non-selection). So give them a break. One loss doesnt mean we have lost the tri-nations, nor does it mean that South Africa deserve to be no. 1 in the IRB rankings. It was just one of those games, South Africa had to step up after the pitiful perfomance the week before and New Zealand was a little green around the edges. A South African win in NZ is as rare as an All Black win in South Africa. And what that all means is that this year the rugby is going to become very very interesting.

Bring on the Graham the great redeemer Henry Vs Robbie the dingo Deans....

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Cos I lied...

I know when I started this blog I said it was to improve the rugby knowledge of more stereotypical kiwi sheilas but hey who am I kiding, I mean really who esle is going to enjoy reading this blog? Infact who esle is going to read this full stop. The posts are often long and perhaps a little too indepth. And well if I am truely honest with myself I would know that my classmates are probably the only people who are likely to visit this page anyway, and most of them have lost interest with their own blog so why would they stop in to read my post for the week/month/time...I guess I was kidding myself by thinking I was writing for an audience.

I have finally realised that blog writing is not about trying to inform, it is not about trying to impress, it is simply about providing a place for naieve writers to come and selfishly spiel. So with that said here goes my ramble... And even if I am the only one who is going to read it, I am going to just rant!

After talking to the R.Engineer I got thinking and the question plaguing me on this cold and dreary evening is - when is it that you are really talking rugby and when are you just killing abit of time with a conversation that just happens to be around rugby.

Too often men talk about the latest game, team, player - whatever - and all I hear is old cliches or commentator tripe. And yet these very men are the ones who never even think to ask someone like me my opinion and by someone like me I mean women. Too many people think that women either are too stupid or not interested enough to understand the inner workings of a ruck. Man does that grate me. And the fact that there are people out there like the idiot female columnist from the Sunday Star times who said that rugby players by definition are not hot rugby irritates me because all she is doing is perpetuating the same old silly myth. To that I say what a load of crap - who the hell cares if they are hot or not, can't we just enjoy the players for the athletes they are rather than trying to trivialise it. Why is as woman, many of us feel the need to ridicule something because we do not understand it (even if it is by choice that we do not understand).

And why is that men think they need to cling to that myth because somehow it validates their masculinity. For Gods sake - I often want to sceram that I probably know more than them, the chauvanistic pigs! I have 28 years of being fluent in rugby. My father played when I was young, the R.Engineer played when I met first him and I, myself, even dabbled in the game for awhile. I have spent many afternoons curled up on the couch watching old replays of games just for the fun it and whats more I enjoy it. So you could say that I get more than a little irked when men who barely know the difference between a hooker and a prostitute dismiss me when the subject comes up.

And to the Ms Sunday Star Times columnist - just because the Rugby jock at high school broke your heart do not try and cover up the fact that you are still bitter about it by saying all rugby players are hideous lumbering oafs with cauliflower ears. I mean of course there are hideous oafs playing rugby perhaps with cauliflower ears even, some may even be All Blacks, but somehow I dont think you can label Dan Carter as anything remotely hideous or plenty of others in the game. And whats more there are some woman out there that like cauliflower ears, not this one of couse but I am rather partial to the R.Engineer's battle scars - there's nothing quite like a good bad boy!