Ireland vs. Pacific Islanders
The minister at my church invited me to come along with him to the international rugby match between Ireland and Pacific Islanders this afternoon. Never heard of the country "Pacific Islanders," you say? That's because it's not one. As far as I could tell, they were a collection of third-string PAC 10 linebackers thrown together hastily for the #3rd ranked Ireland team to demolish. Either that or a team put together from Togo, Fiji, and Tonga (whose King has been receiving Ted L. Nancy's mail again). Whoever they were, they didn't prove much competition for Ireland. Final score, Ireland 61 Islanders 17. And they were lucky to get their 17.
I have pictures:
This is the stadium before the game got started. There's a band on the field, and everyone sings along with them. According to the minister, they were singing "kind of a Republican song." No wonder everyone was getting into it so much. In fact, some fans tried to start the song back up a few times during the game. I think it's a little like their "Yea Alabama" with nationalistic overtones.
The Islanders (in white) came out and danced around a minute with a two mascots in loincloths. Ireland (in green) watched calmly. They knew how to make them quit dancing.
An action shot from the game.
This is called a scrum which is short for scrummage, a word that sounds even funnier than scrum. It's like a jump ball except a member of one of the teams gets to throw the ball into the huddle. Guess whose team usually gets the ball.
I have pictures:
This is the stadium before the game got started. There's a band on the field, and everyone sings along with them. According to the minister, they were singing "kind of a Republican song." No wonder everyone was getting into it so much. In fact, some fans tried to start the song back up a few times during the game. I think it's a little like their "Yea Alabama" with nationalistic overtones.
The Islanders (in white) came out and danced around a minute with a two mascots in loincloths. Ireland (in green) watched calmly. They knew how to make them quit dancing.
An action shot from the game.
This is called a scrum which is short for scrummage, a word that sounds even funnier than scrum. It's like a jump ball except a member of one of the teams gets to throw the ball into the huddle. Guess whose team usually gets the ball.
posted by Gabriel | Sunday, November 26, 2006
6 Comments:
I'm more confused about rugby than I was before your explanation.
Remember the Nick Hornby story on TAL about playing soccer for his tiny country even though he had never played soccer before? That's what I thought of reading about the "Pacific Islanders".
What do you suppose your minister meant by "kind of a republican song"? Was there any mention of capital punishment for the retarded in this song?
I'm trying to imagine what this song might have been like to make it the Irish equivilent of "yea Alabama". Is there an Irish equivilent of "Rammer Jammer"?
I would've liked a little more detail about this little loin cloth dance.
Since you mentioned it, my nephew Alex sang "Yea Alabama" to us on a hayride this week. Have you ever pondered the lyrics?
The writer seems pretty adamant about Alabama beating the "yellow jackets" (a team they never play) and making it to the Rose Bowl (a bowl SEC teams aren't affiliated with)
There is no doubt in my mind that "yea Alabama" was written by Gregg Brown!
"Kind of a Republican song" means a song in favor of the Republic of Ireland as opposed to the Union with Britain. Sorry, should have clarified. The song is in no way affiliated with Karl Rove.
I cannot begin to match the comments of you two. Let me just answer the question. I think the team that had the much higher score got the ball most of the time it was throw in. Am I correct?
youre apparently too important to answer gmail conversations, so i'll just have to harass you via blog. of course, it's 5am and i have nothing harrassing to say. except i did just finish my last paper!!!!! now i can actually go to my house. i havent seen it in two weeks! when will i see you again!? two weeks!! why am i yelling?!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
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