At
least you didn’t wear blue! – Laughed the Queensland Reds fans we
happened to meet at the train station after saying it was our first
match ever. We weren’t sure where we were headed, but followed them
through the station onto a shuttle bus to Suncorp Stadium to challenge
the New South Wales Waratahs in the Super 14 home opener. The same
group even cheered the bus driver and gave us inflatable cheer sticks –
courtesy of Coke. Not quite rugby hooligans.
The
match itself was incredibly hard-hitting and resulted in a few bloody
noses. These guys make NFL players look silly with all their pads.
There had to be some sucker punches in those piles!
Throughout
the match, the unfamiliar kept us busy and guessing. After a player
caught the ball and got pummeled by an opponent there was a penalty
“Failing to Remain on Feet”. Did we hear that right? Who could have
remained on their feet with that hit? Maybe we misheard the call.
The
referee stopped play for halftime with 35 seconds left on the clock and
I had to stop asking Lee why – he was as clueless as I was. He was
confused about why they kept kicking the ball out of bounds- sometimes
to the cheers of fans.
The scene was
filled with boxes of fries, meat pies, XXXX beer and Bundy (rum) and
cokes – 4 or 8 carried per person. I ordered a ginger ale and the
server automatically grabbed a liquor cup and then stopped with a
puzzled look – “Just a ginger ale? No liquor?” We’ve seen shirts that
say, “My drinking team has a rugby problem” I’m sure we’re just seeing
the tip of the iceberg.
To
our surprise, there were no vendors of jerseys, flags or anything you
don’t eat or drink. No handmade signs or painted faces in the crowd.
One of the corners of the stadium tried for about 10 minutes to start
the wave, but it never caught on past a few sections. We know better
than to take the comparisons to American sports too far.
It’s just our first…By the third or fourth I’m sure we’ll be arguing the calls with the best of them! This site helped some, for a starting point.
