Rugby and Cricket

We have been doing our best to figure out the games of rugby and cricket while down here.  I’d say we have both games about 50% figured out.  We know how you score.  We semi-know what a good play looks like.  We are missing all the nuance.

Rugby is of course a big deal down here.  When we stay in a place where we have TV we get about 10 channels and it seems that a couple are usually devoted to rugby (generally “Super Rugby” which involves high level teams from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa).  Lucas has picked up his first jersey (for the All Blacks, the New Zealand National Team of course).  Walter seems to be obsessed with scrumming.  One thing that we have noticed about rugby is that the players seem to very polite to the referee and generally to the other team while partaking in a very aggressive game.  Both soccer and football could take a lesson from rugby on this point.  I have also noticed a difference in ads during these games relative to what we see in the states.  The NFL has the usual array of Coors Light ads while rugby has ads for sheep worming medicine and “teat seal” (I hope that has something to do with the New Zealand dairy industry otherwise I am stumped).

Undoubtedly, you are all following the Cricket World Cup currently being jointly hosted by New Zealand and Australia.  It seems to involve all of the former British colonies except the US.  You would think that we would at least be able to compete  with Bangledesh.