Éirinn go Brách: Rugby Match- Munster Vs Osperys

So you know how NFL games are huge in America? Go to a rugby match. It's a lot of fun and really interesting, and get this- the standing tickets right by the field are half the price of the bleacher seats. I literally watched the match from behind the try line (try is rugby term for touch down). It was really cool. I didn't understand much of the game, so a friend from New Zealand helped me figure some of the rules out. Apparently it's big there too.

Here's what I got:

The game starts with a kickoff, and the teams try to gain possession by lifting teammates up to catch the ball. The team then tries to score points by moving the ball to the endzone, if that is what it is called.

If a player has the ball and is tackled the goal is to keep the ball moving. Teammates cover the player to try to give him a chance to get the ball out of the mess of men and to a teammate, who then passes off. The kicker is that the ball can only be thrown backwards in a pass.

To move the ball forward, a player can kick it, and hopefully it will hit the ground on the field and bounce out of bounds, where it is then thrown back into play. If the ball goes out of bounds before it hits the ground, it is thrown in from where it was kicked, and it doesn't move forward.

Then there is what is called a scrum. The teams line up against one another, sorta like in football but a lot tighter. A player throws the ball in the center, and the teams push against each other to get it. I don't know exactly when a scrum happens, but I do know it is to determine who has possession.

When a try is made, the team moves for a conversion, which is like a field goal. The ball is kicked from directly behind where the try was made. So the kicker may have to make it from a strange angle. Similar to football, the try is worth 5 points and the conversion is worth 2. Apparently you can move for a conversion at any point in the game, but I haven't figured out much more than that.

All in all, it is a great experience. Rugby is easy to get into and as the Irish would put it, "Great crack!"

Enjoy a few pictures: