A Bit Of Rugby.

Again, we are in the final.

Rugby is akin to religion back in South Africa and I suppose any other ex-colonial countries feel it too. Rugby mania, rugby obsession and a love of rugby that one can only equate to the love that Europeans feel for soccer. Bob too likes his rugby but since we hardly ever see any of it here in Austria, it has fluttered to the edge of his mind, gently hibernating until last Saturday.

For some odd and rather welcome reason one of the German TV channels has been covering the rugby world cup being held in Japan with a full set of matches and superb commentators. Sadly we only stumbled across this channel last weekend, but never mind, the most exciting match is still to come.

I had warned Bob to be prepared to hear his favourite sport being commentated on
in German ( A try-Ein Versuch ) but he was just so thrilled to watch a whole match without having to go to some questionable and intricate bit of online streaming, that he didn't even notice the language difference or more to the point, he is happy to listen to German and understands it perfectly.

South Africa was in the semi-final match this morning and it was a cracker of a match more so from the spectating gallery than from the pitch. Bob got so excited when finally a Versuch was had that he literally screamed the house down while jumping up and down with great gusto. Mausi, who was slumbering away on her chair got such a fright that she actually fell to the floor and cowered under the desk, eventually choosing caution and slinking off to another room.

It was great to watch a match again although the technicalities had to be explained to me by Bob. One does wonder why they don't pick up the ball when it invitingly sits there between the ankles of a player in the scrum! After the final whistle went, South Africa had won the match, semi-final and the adoration of many millions of fans all over the world.

Next weekend will see the final between England and South Africa, which will be a hard fought battle and which we thankfully are able to watch comfortably from our couches...

Biggi