Yes some of you might recognise the slogan of a rugby team. So the last two weekends I have gone to loads of rugby on the weekend. First there was the International 7s Tournament (7 players per side, 11 minute halves) and then this weekend it was the Barbarians vs England.
7s is a fast paced game is fun to watch. Especially if one game is boring, there will be another in about 20 minutes. The tournament is an all weekend affair - with the pool play on Saturday and the semis - finals on Sunday. Oh yea - its also a big fancy dress (read - costume) party. England ending up winning this tournament but they are still in overall second place to South Africa in the standings. Other teams that played were USA (probably my only chance to see USA Eagles play in international competition), Georgia (Republic of not State of), Fiji and Kenya (both are good), Canada (they beat USA for the shield and finished essentially 7th and 8th place, respectively), New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Germany, Samoa and Scotland.
While we didn't go in fancy dress the first day, we quickly decided we wouldn't miss out on the fun for Sunday. SO after several txt messages and calls to a few people, we managed to wrangle up some outfits for the next day. Unfortunately with so little effort truly put into it, we only were able to pull off a pitiful old lady (basically men in dresses) effort. Oh well, it was a good day out overall.
The Barbarians were playing the English top side. However as the British/Irish Lions are on tour of South Africa (basically a chance for the UK to send their best players from all associated sides - England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland), the English side was mainly the up and coming future of the national side. The Barbarians are a select side of international players that form up a few times a year and play. They tend to play "champagne" rugby, lots of finesse and flair good technique but they do tend to take a few more chances than a normal side would. The Lions (in case you are wondering) form up every 4 years and have to be selected each year. They tour South Africa, Australia or New Zealand, playing several warm up games against various sides and then a 3 game series against the national team.
Both of the events were at Twickenham, which is in south west London and supposed to be one of the best rugby stadiums. Given its only the third one I have ever been to, it was cool. So I have fallen behind on planning vacations and am quickly trying to come up with a June/July holiday before I return to the US in July/August.
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Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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