Thursday, September 8, 2011

Like a kid on Christmas eve...

The Rugby World Cup 2011 starts tomorrow... BOOM!

Good times... GOOD times.

Will South Africa become the first team in the tournament's history to successfully defend the title? Is 2011 a few years too early for Australia's team of gifted youngsters? Can this New Zealand side finally put a 24-year hoodoo to rest on home soil? Most importantly, will Stickman's cable subscription hold out and provide the coverage he deserves needs to stay in touch with all the key games... despite his residing in a far-off land where the primitive locals are ignorant of the intricacies of the scrum, the savage beauty of the crash tackle, the deft touches required to put the inside man into space... and where combining the words "hooker" and "prop" in a sentence is likely to only invite accusations of sexual depravity? (Uncivilised boors!)

My tentative answers to the above questions are: 1) "I fear not"; 2) "probably"; 3) "well, they won't be staying on home soil otherwise";... and 4) "by God, I hope so!".[*]

Really, all other sports are just for laughs. This is what I'm talking about:




[*] Actually, on question four, I've found a nice Irish pub down the road -- there's one in every city! -- that screens all the rugby games for desperate expats like me. It won't be quite the same vibes as the last World Cup, when I actually travelled to (then hosts) France to watch some games... but we'll have to make do!

Last time around.
Onbeskof.

5 comments:

  1. I see you had been working on your abdominal muscles back then.

    "Onbeskof"? Google translate tells me this means "rude". Am I missing something?

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  2. Oh, and that haka war dance is disturbing to say the least. The ringleader looks possessed!

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  3. 2am and i'm sitting like a kid before christmas. Hope it all comes right with cable and so on. I'd like to hear your expert opinion on Victor and Danie in the second row - don't pull no bloody thesis / masters cards on me.

    He came after your time, but you always struck me as a physical Matfield old Stickman. I'll never forget you barging to the front against a 5m penalty out in Paar. Stickman's Dad told me to make the first tackle you said. I thought Stickman's Dad was a lunatic for years!

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  4. A less built moment for the Stickman - https://plus.google.com/104020314480824599883/posts

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  5. @AJ50
    Not missing anything, mate. The key lies with the guy's t-shirt, which loosely translated might be interpreted as saying, um, "skirt chasing in France". Except ruder and in rhyme!

    @Ponce
    You are too kind, sir! (Although, by "more physical", I can only assume you meant "physically inferior"?) Charging the tap and go is the best way of killing their momentum!

    As for Danie and Victor... nothing wrong with that. The former can get a bit tuck-the-ball-under-the-arm-ish (Amish?) for me sometimes, but he's generally class. Better balance over the full game than, say, than Victor and Becker. (Although, I do worry about Bakkies' absence in the scrum...)

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