Our month in Wellington is coming to a close and -- for me at least -- the feeling is bitter sweet. I have really enjoyed the time we have spent here; going to a true Victoria University lecture with other kiwi students, living in the dorms on campus and staying long enough in one place to really feel like I'm getting to understand the ebb and flow of the city. But I am also getting pretty antsy to leave. We're headed out on our South Island tour on Monday, heading for the ferry to cross the Cook's Straight at 6:30am.
On our last weekend in the city, Ken and Tim have arranged for us to watch the Wellington based rugby team the Hurricanes. The game's tonight and I am TOTALLY stoked for it! But in order to insure we understood the ins and outs of the sport, yesterday they asked a couple of Ken's students to teach 22 American kids how to play rugby. I'm really glad they did it -- I mean, I know we have a decently sized rugby team at LC, but I had never taken the time to understand it before. All I could compare rugby to was American football without pads... but oh, it is so much more than that...
We started with a short description of the game and staged a scrum (a well staged huddle in which both teams try to kick the ball out to their respective teammates) and went over the rules in brief, the most important of which being that you can't pass the ball forward. A player can only advance the ball if they are running or kicking it. This requires a lot of communication between teammates for you to know where your other players are at all times. Second most important, I would say, would be that you cannot play the ball while you're on the ground. If you are on your knees you are unable to hold on to or otherwise touch the ball. This results in the downed player being essentially straddled by their teammates to create a protective space for the ball to rest on the ground. Thirdly, on defense you are unable to touch anyone on the opposing team that does not have the ball. Similarly, if you're on offence and are not in possession of the ball you cannot touch an apposing player -- aka, no blocking for your teammates.
If we had more instruction, I don't remember it. We divided up into two teams (including Tim and Valeurie, who were both totally fierce in competition), kicked off the ball and began to pummel each other. Even standing on the field, I realized how disorganized and ridiculous we looked running around dog-piling each other every chance we got. I'm probably sorer now from laughing rather than actually playing the game.
It took us a while to get into the flow of the game and even by the end of it I still didn't understand all of the rules and penalties. But we all had a blast -- even those of us who ended up hobbling off the field with our various injuries!
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