Wales V Canada

[Macsen]

Any Canadian rugby fans out there?

 

Canada will play before their biggest ever crowd, 74,000 people (including one Macsen) when they face Wales at the Millenium Stadium today.

 

For those of you not familiar with rugby, it's like American football but you can only pass backwards and aren't allowed to wear any padding.

 

Here's a Welsh rugby song to get you in the mood, with lyrics slightly amended:

 

We paid our weekly shilling for that November trip:

A long weekend in Cardiff, aye, without a bit of kip.

There's a seat reserved for beer by the boys from Abercarn:

There's beer, pontoon, crisps and fags and a croakin 'Calon Lan'.

 

And we were singing hymns and arias,

'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.

 

Into Queen Street we did roll with an empty crate of ale.

Will had lost at cards and now his Western Mail's for sale.

But Will is very happy though his money all has gone:

He swapped five photos of his wife for one of Barry John.

 

And we were singing hymns and arias,

'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.

 

We got to the stadium early and were jostled in the crowd;

Planted leeks and dragons, looked for toilets all around.

So many there we couldn't budge -twisted legs and pale:

I'm ashamed we used a bottle, that once held bitter ale.

 

And we were singing hymns and arias,

'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.

 

Wales defeated Canada in a fast and open game.

We sang 'Cwm Rhondda' and 'Delilah',

damn, they sounded both the same.

We sympathised with a Canadian

whose team was doomed to fail

So we gave him that old bottle, that once held bitter ale!

 

He started singing hymns and arias,

'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.

 

So it's down to Splot for the night,

to the girls with the shiny beads;

To the funny men with lipstick on,

with evil minds and deeds.

One said to Will from a doorway dark,

damn, she didn't have much on.

But Will knew what she wanted,

aye...his photo of Barry John!

 

'Cos she was singing hymns and arias,

'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'.

[Vadrosaul]

We have our American-style football championship tomorrow (CFL), so attention will be there. I'll grant you it's not as exciting as rugby, but it's easily better than NFL.

[Macsen]

Bah, I don't know why North America is so inward looking when it comes to sports. You may not be able to find the rest of the world on a map, but you can at least support your international teams rather than, er, 'playing with yourselves', so to speak.

 

There were very few Canadian supporters at the game, only two in fact, and they were sitting behind me. They kept saying 'this is sure different to mount royal, ey?' and whooping whenever Canada got the ball.

[Vadrosaul]

Bah, I don't know why North America is so inward looking when it comes to sports. You may not be able to find the rest of the world on a map, but you can at least support your international teams rather than, er, 'playing with yourselves', so to speak.

?? Same could be said of UK and soccer. I bet the support the British bring to their international hockey team is comparable to the support we give to our international rugby team.

 

"You may not be able to find the rest of the world on a map" - Uhh I don't know if you are just being facetious there, but don't assume Canadians receive instruction similar to US public school education. We can find tiny little insignificant Wales on a map just fine

[Macsen]

?? Same could be said of UK and soccer. I bet the support the British bring to their international hockey team is comparable to the support we give to our international rugby team.

'Soccer' (or football to the rest of earth) is the most popular sport on the planet. It isn't a sport the UK concentrates on just because no-one else plays it.

 

Canadians: "OK, we'll play a game based on ice, 'cause most of the world doesn't have any and can't beat us at it! Bwahahaha!"

 

We can find tiny little insignificant Wales on a map just fine

Its better being small and insignificant than big and insignificant, like Canada.

[Gildoran]

"You may not be able to find the rest of the world on a map" - Uhh I don't know if you are just being facetious there, but don't assume Canadians receive instruction similar to US public school education. We can find tiny little insignificant Wales on a map just fine

What?! How dare you slander the great US public school system!

 

 

(please ignore the fact that I can't even find the locations of major cities on the eastern half of my own country, let alone find other nations)

[Vadrosaul]

Sorry meant to say UK and rugby. Agree on soccer's popularity, I personally like the British sports better than the American ones. Sadly Canada is influenced more directly by the US.

 

If I can find Roanoke, VA Gildoran, then you can find Kitchener, ON

[Macsen]

Sorry meant to say UK and rugby. Agree on soccer's popularity, I personally like the British sports better than the American ones. Sadly Canada is influenced more directly by the US.

There are 95 serious national rugby teams, and at least one great top 20 rugby team in every continent on earth, so I'd consider it to be a more international game than hockey. Soccer and rugby are also more accessible games than ice hockey to the vast majority of the population, because they can be played pretty much anywhere.

 

The only bad thing about rugby is that it has been mostly spread by British colonialism, and is mostly played by the upper classes (see how few black people are on the South Africa team, for instance). Wales is an exception where it is at its most popular in the working class valleys.

 

I'm not much of a fan of football because of the hooligans who follow it. Football is a gentleman's game played by thugs, while rugby is a thug's game played by gentlemen.

[Vadrosaul]

Well, my hometown BC Lions are the 2006 Grey Cup football champions. Poor Montreal, always making it to the final but rarely pulling it off. In the CFL world, West is Best

[demagogue]

I started liking rugby when I realized it and US football were two variations on the same basic theme -- finding the right angles to run, when to have a burst of speed, using teamwork to advance, either blocking or back-passing -- just emphasizing different aspects. Rugby is a lot like a runback in US football on a grander scale, where you can also pass backwards, and I've always found the running game in US football more interesting.

 

I actually find it hard to see how someone can like one and not the other, once you know what's going on, and I like watching both on tv. But I don't follow it well enough to have a feel for which teams are good. Actually, not professional US football either. College football is the only thing I really follow, and that's just because where I come from (Univ Texas), it's sort of an unofficial religion; you are supposed to support your college team no matter what.

Edited November 20, 2006 by demagogue

[OrbWeaver]

College football is the only thing I really follow, and that's just because where I come from (Univ Texas), it's sort of an unofficial religion; you are supposed to support your college team no matter what.

 

That's a good reason to support it?

[demagogue]

Actually, U.Texas won the Division I national championship last season ... so there's a good reason to follow them right there. And when I was in school, we had Ricky Williams as runningback winning the Heisman trophy (best college player of the year). It's a very good team.

 

I guess I was speaking more generally; I'd cheer for them in any event. All the better that it's actually a winning team. My brother went to Texas A&M which isn't all that great, but they have spirit coming out their asses like sunshine.

 

Oh, also to distinguish college from professional US football. I really don't feel much pull to cheer for the city of Dallas (the Cowboys) and follow prof teams, nothing even close to the pull to cheer for the Univ of Texas and follow college teams. The connection just isn't as strong. That's what I was thinking in that post.