RUGBY with South Africa native… aka amazing afternoon!
It was a sunny day in Southern Canada (haha; I bet everyone expected me to say Southern California) and 1/4 of SBC team headed to a rugby match at UBC (UBC Tbirts @ University of California Golden Bears). The Bears being undefeated this season, the unfortunate outcome (6 – 38 for Cal) did not come as a big shocker. I don’t know whether it was the rugby, the sun, the cider I had, or the company that made the game still very enjoyable.
It started with GO TBIRDS!
While rugby is relatively popular in Canada, it’s by no means as popular as in England, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. I was lucky enough to meet a South Africa native, who took me to the game and spoke a little bit about this fairly – to me – yet not well known sport.
Robyn E. grew up in South Africa, with a family who was really big on rugby and consequentially developed love and passion for this sport. It’s fair to say that this was one of my very first rugby games I’ve seen live, and not knowing much about didn’t prevent me to see that UBC Tbirts were falling short in almost every aspect of the game. Robyn agreed that TOP moment of the game was definitely seeing UBC setting up different plays, which suggested there was a lot of potential there, however they were unforunately not being able to excute them well, which gave Bears a big advantage. In addition, UBC was not good at utilizing their lines, and trying to rush too much against a team that was physically bigger.
The MVP of the game was without a doubt UBCs Fly Half n’9 who was great at leading the team and pre-seeing needed plays. Even if I got asked a few times if I was there for the boys (I kept wondering if I really looked that much out of place(?)), the event and the atmosphere at the match itself was – in my opinion – well executed. We had a chance to meet some of the Alumni, who were in great spirit to support their University team and did not leave early despite the outcome (dudes that left early – be ashamed!). Needless to say it was a beatiful day for college sports.
“MORE RUGBY” people scream! Yes, sorry for my awesome afternoon in so many(?) details. Robyn describes South African rugby with three words only; raucus, pride and, tradition. She thinks it’d be rather difficult for any Canadian to adapt in such a culture where you need to embody a dangerous spirit, and though mind of the rugby culture. There is no surprise that one of the best rugby matches to watch would be South Africa Springboks @ New Zealand All Blacks (let’s forget how they destroyed Canada last year *tears*). However, let’s not forget about Victoria, BC decent rugby culture. We both agreed we should continue my rugby journey and see some Velox (which supposobly attracts many expats) matches in the near future.
by L. [to be continued]
SPORTS by Clara 