Feb. 13th: First Rugby Game!

Hey everybody! Today was pretty exciting. Didn’t really do much this afternoon, had to move all my stuff to a new room since I extended my stay at the hostel. I have a lot of luggage! Today was a really hot day so I tried to avoid the sun in the afternoon. Me and Brittney (the other girl from Madison who is studying here) went downtown and walked around the mall a little bit. We noticed there was an event going on at the stadium close by the hostel so we decided to investigate. We found out it was a rugby game and since we’ve been planning on going to one we decided to get tickets. The game was the Queensland Reds vs. the New South Wales Waratahs (and no, I don’t know what a waratah is). (Queensland and New South Wales are two states in Australia, Queensland is where I’m staying and New South Wales is farther south, where Sydney is). Rugby is a pretty intense sport, to say the least. The basics of the game are: you can only throw backwards or laterally, you have to touch the ball down in the end zone, there’s fifteen players on the field per team (pretty sure), and other than that it’s kind of like football except with no plays, no helmets or padding, and no downs. When the ball goes out of bounds, the two teams line up and players are lifted in the air to catch the ball. Scoring is five points per touchdown, two points for a field goal after the touchdown, and three points for a regular field goal (you can kick the ball anytime on the field). There’s two forty minute halves in the game. So it sort looks like all out war on the field, which is pretty fun to watch. Rugby players are literally insane considering they run full speed at each other with no padding. There was a “curtain raiser” game with two less popular teams, which was good to watch so I got used to how the game works. The stadium filled up for the main game (Reds vs. Waratahs) with over 22,000 people showing up! The game was really exciting, the Reds ran onto the field with fireworks shooting up, and fireworks were lit every time the Reds scored a touchdown. The teams went back and forth until the last minute of the game when the Waratahs scored a touchdown to tie the score and kicked a field goal to win the game just as the timer went off. Definitely a good first rugby game, too bad we lost though. After the game we stopped for some mint chocolate chip ice cream (my favorite). It’s hard to believe it was the first time I’ve had ice cream in this country. When we got back, we decided to do laundry, which was way overdue. Tomorrow we’re going to the Koala Sanctuary, so I’m excited for that. Keep in touch!