May 23: Rugby

Its worth trying

It is always interesting here down under no matter what the plans are for the day. It is hard to follow up a full day like yesterday [see Trevor’s post], but I will do my best. After the sun rose on another beautiful day we got up bright eyed, bushy tailed, and ready for our rugby lesson at 8. The lesson was on the rugby field behind our cabins, and there met up with a man named Harry. Harry was a rugby player, and now teaching is teaching the game. We went through all the kinds of basic fundamentals with him; evading obstacles, passing the ball, tackling the opponents, and maintaining our balance. He made the lesson entertaining, while also being patient and hands on with us during the lesson. During one of our balance drills we had to touch our partners shoulders while we each had a hold of one of each others arms. Harry used me as a demonstration, and I could not move him at all. It was like trying to move a tank with one arm. Once we went through all the fundamental drills we went to more live scenarios. One of the drills was what to do when you are finally tackled, and I was paired up with Laura for the drill, who I was supposed to tackle. I put a hit a little harder than I meant to, so karma was not in my favor for that. Once we had situational stuff down we went and played a real game. We split up into teams, and went at it for a good ten minutes and the team I was on scored three tries. I think we could compete professionally, maybe we would just represent the US without tryouts, no big deal. You know how I said karma was not on my side earlier. As soon as the game was finished all of us were walking back to our stuff off the field, and behind me Laura comes and takes me out, so no we are even. I heard a grunt behind me but didn’t know what it was until I was on the ground, and I sighed thinking I deserved that. Once rugby finished we hung out until two because we were heading to a rugby match about twenty minutes away. At around noon I had one of my few life changing meals, and it was pancakes with ice cream on top of it [see picture]. It has been my favorite meal so far, if eaten be careful because you might want more than one plate of it. At two the group headed to a local rugby match, it was between Wallingbar and Cosmo. The game as you could say one sided with the score being Wallingbar 81 and Cosmo 3. The Wallingbar team was dominant in every aspect of the game, and I sort of feel bad for the Cosmo team as they had to stick it out. Once the game finished our group met up with the team and took in some good Australian rugby fun, ones that included relay races and skill shots. We even saw Harry at the rugby match, and he still talked us through the game if we had any question. Overall if was a good day to blog mostly focused on rugby today, but we would be in Australia if rugby wasn’t mentioned at least once while we were here. 

Harry and 5 of the guys (Harry is far left)