We could have walked that 10 dollars worth!

We were off to our first field trip of our Sport Learning in Australian Culture class; a rugby game! We met our professor and a few other classmates at the Royal Hotel. Believe it or not this was actually a pub that our professor had wanted to eat dinner at before the game since they had 9 dollar steaks. We haven’t decided it that’s weird or cool to meet your professor at a pub, but we weren’t there for long. (I think it goes to show how cool and laid back our professor is actually) We started our walk to the Allianz stadium, with our professor giving us a little tour with tidbits of information about certain spots in Sydney. Halfway there the professor told us that we were actually going to be taking a taxi the rest of the way there. Riley and I weren’t too happy about this idea since taxis are of course expensive! But with four people in the taxi he said it would be about 4-5 dollars each. We finally hailed a cab and sure enough our professor was right. It cost us 4 dollars each to go just about 2 miles. The fare meter does not stop here whenever the car stops; in fact I think it goes at a rate of 5 cents per second. That adds up quickly okay, especially when the taxi driver refuses to get out of the bus line. Needless to say, Riley and I weren’t too happy after that. Might be our one and only taxi experience in Sydney. We met up with everyone in front of the stadium to get our tickets as well as a fans flag for the Waratahs. Our seats were pretty awesome since they were close to the field and the game started within two minutes of us sitting down.



The game started off with the Waratahs (our team) kicking the ball to the
 Cheetahs (South Africa) similar to that of football.

Then the falling began.

It wasn’t long until the Cheetahs succeeded in a try – getting it over the goal line scoring 5 points. I think the Waratahs (in the blue jerseys) were a little shocked and disoriented so they had to regroup.

This is a good picture to show about the throwing behind rugby. You actually cannot throw the ball backwards or overhand. The ball has to always be tossed backwards or else it is a turnover.

 

Once the ball is tossed the player has to try to run forward without getting tackled. If they do hit the ground then they have roughly one second to release the ball before a penalty is called and the ball is overturned. It order to remain with possession of the ball they crouch and shove the ball between their knees so it ends up behind them and one of their teammates can pick up the ball and toss it to another player.

 

If there is a time penalty (when a player hit the ground and didn’t release the ball in time) then teams form this structure called a ‘scum’ where they basically play tug a war with their bodies to force the other team back a couple of steps; whichever team succeeds in pushing the hardest gets possession of the ball.

 

Whenever the ball goes out of play then the two teams both put 5 players in parallel lines called a ‘line out.’ A player from the team with possession of the ball throws the ball down the middle of the line out to hopefully one of their players. The teams actually lift players in the air to get possession of the ball.

This is the Waratahs mascot!

 

Us at the game!

Here’s a panorama of the stadium!

 

We learned so much about rugby and enjoyed the fast pace of the game. Time does not stop for anything so it’s guaranteed to be over in about two hours. Tickets were reasonable priced, only 15 dollars for students so we’re hoping to bring our international friends along next time for a night out.