Watching the big game

No, not the Super Bowl.  That started after midnight here, and I had a test the next morning.

I'm talking, obviously, about France's big triumph over Ireland on Sunday in the Six Nations tournament.  That's rugby, fyi.

Now, I am not going to become one of those obnoxious American soccer apologists, who go abroad and then come back and proclaim the world-wide glories of 'futbol' (spelled 'football' in English, thank you very much).  I've become mildly more interested in reading about soccer over here, but it's still boring to watch. 

Rugby, on the other hand, is pretty thrilling to watch.  The action never stops, but is constantly varying.  The ball changes possession a lot and they can score in different ways.  They don't wear pads and there are limits on tackling techniques, making it is less violent than the NFL.  Thus you don't feel guilty watching, unlike the NFL, where you know the players are most likely giving each other shortened, mentally-incapacitated lives for the sake of your entertainment. 

That being said, it is pretty complicated to get in to on your own.  There are a lot of rules governing minute details.  Margaret and I went to an Irish pub with my classmate Matthieu to watch the game.  He is from Toulouse, a rugby hotbed in the south of France, grew up with many of the Toulouse players on France's national team, and plays amateur club rugby.  We quizzed him on rules virtually the whole game, but I'm still not exactly sure what happened.  Take the scrum, for example, where the players gather around in a giant circle and push for the ball.  Turns out it is the most technical and strategic part of the game, and not just a shoving match.  The sport has a language all its own, as I'm sure you noticed if you tried to read the story about the France/Ireland match.

You don't have to know all about it to realize that it is thrilling to watch though.  France won because of a clutch goal line stand with the clock winding down.  I didn't need to know the rules to be on the edge of my chair.  We had a great time experiencing that bit of European culture, and hopefully I'll get to go watch more of the 6 Nations tournament in coming weeks.  We also got tickets to go see a professional club match in Stade de France in March, along with Matthieu and a bunch of other classmates. 

The best part is that the 80 minute game (two 40 minute halves) was done in less than two hours, since we didn't have to watch 6000 Coors Light commercials.