It’s really hard to ignore the World Cup fever that’s just round the corner.
From tvs with BIG screens to recorders, to beer to airline adverts.
But for me, it doesn’t have as much thrill and excitement as rugby. Sorry, football fans.
In rugby, you try to bring down the opponent with the ball, you push against each other for possession of the ball. You run with the ball to the other end to score a touch-down. Much more exciting and ‘rough’ than football. I mean if you are going to run around a field chasing a ball, you might as well fight for it, right? Hmm…. says something about my character. No wonder I ended joining judo instead of gymastics.
Anyway, last weekend, we went to watch the Rugby 7’s at the National Stadium, an international series hosted by Sngapore. Not that Singapore is any good, but that’s another story.
In the 7’s series, there are only 7 players instead of the usual 15 players. The playing time is shorter too, only 7 minutes. This means that not only the men has to be fit, they have to be fast as well.
And if you think big men can’t run fast, you should think again. And you should see some of them holding onto the ball with one hand, pushing away an attacker with the other hand, AND running towards the goal line at the same time. Quite something.
What I really liked about this event, which I’ve been going for the last 3 years, is the very ‘family’ and carnival atmosphere. Maybe because the fans are more cosmopolitan. So you see children running around, balllons shaping and face painting for kids, bagpipes players, drums group and the infectious music being played during all the breaks. You’ll laugh but songs like YMCA (by Village people), Delina (Tom Jones), Oh Carol gets the crowd on their feet, singing, dancing and tap along, including my 2 left-feet husband. Oldies but goodies, definitely.
But what really got me amused it this:
You get a chance to be in this cool pool when you buy your beer. For half an hour, you’re allowd to soak in the cool water, a respite from the hot and get free beer…….IN PUBLIC.
Can you imagine any women wanting to be in the pool? Me either. I guess that’s why there were many more men than women. But the men were really, really enjoying themselves.
Knowing my Korean craze, my husband asked me who I was supporting in one of the finals, which was between Korean and China. Silly man, need he ask?
Hehehehe!
Singapore, unfortunately, is just not quite up there, though they played much better on the 2nd day than the 1st day. Thankfully, they finish the tournament by scoring some points in the last match…
Husband finally convinced himself that he should really, show off his support for his home team, and just before going off to the game on Saturday.
You can tell he’s really pleased with it….
