Saturday, May 27, 2006

Rugby head

I did a strange thing tonight and watched a rugby game on TV. As a fanatical non-sports-fan, I pride myself on the fact that I can tell rugby apart from rugby league, but as for actually sitting through a whole 80 minutes... well, no thanks.

Even stranger was the fact that I sat up watching the game on TV all by myself. Everyone else was in bed, so there was no group-hug-beer-swilling-anthem-chanting fever to inspire me. I sat there in my jammies, drinking Milo. (I got bored halfway through though and did the dishes.)

Anyway, it was the BIG game of the season - the Super 14 Final. Our local team the Crusaders were playing another New Zealand team, the Hurricanes, so the whole country was going a bit wild. My aunty and her mates even flew down from Wellington especially for the game, which is a bit overboard if you ask me, but hey, whatever rocks your boat.

My workplace had the whole "dress in red and black" theme happening yesterday, and the whole city was awash in red and black balloons, red and black cars, red and black people... seriously, this is really the only reason why I even knew a game was on at all.

So I sat down to watch... I thought I'd just take a peek at the start (I usually love watching the haka, and was disappointed to realise that there wasn't a haka for the Super 14 games... just masked horsemen and moody music... not quite as tear jerky and heart-strings pully). And I was hooked!!!

No, it wasn't the game that got me hooked. It wasn't the guys that got me hooked (I mean, seriously, is there anything LESS sexy than a rugby player?). It was the WEATHER.

Jade Stadium is a few blocks from my house, and I'm very in touch with my environment.

I stared at the screen. I fiddled with the settings of the TV. Nope. Still all white. Then I listened to the commentators for a minute.

"Umm, and I think that Umaga just kicked the ball that way... anyone know who caught it?"

"No, but we'll cross over to the guy who's stationed at that end of the field..."

"Hi, yes, apparently it looks as if the ball bounced, and then McCaw picked it up."

"Great, thanks!"

Suddenly it clicked. I ran to the front door, just to check. Yup. FOG. Foggy as a foggy thing.

The poor rugby players could see only about 10 metres in front of them at any one time. The commentators had no idea what was happening. The people in the stands at the stadium got up and left en masse, hoping to find a big screen TV somewhere which might show more than just white fog.

I LOVED it. Tee hee hee. Extreme weather is something I like. It's interesting.

And hey, it could be the start of a new "extreme" sport. You never know.

(And yes, the Crusaders won, of course. Caaaaaaaaaaaaannabreeeeee......)

posted by cesca @ 11:53 PM | Blogger Comments ...2 |