Rugby

Monday night we experienced our first Australian rugby match. The local Brisbane Broncos played the West Sydney Tigers. Lucky for us, an $18 student ticket purchase 30 minutes before the start of the game gave us 12th row seats! The environment was quite entertaining. A whopping 29,000 in attendance, who didn't seem to mind the constant rain, all hooted and hollered; beers splashing, guts jiggling, and mullets blowing in the wind. Here, we were introduced to the Aussie term, bogun, which is equal in meaning to America's version of the redneck. The excitement reached a fever pitch when the two teams broke out in a fight, which made the crowd the loudest it had been all night. The victory was decisive; the home team won 48 to 18.

The sport is quite similar to American football in concept, but much simpler because there are no timeouts or 100+ penalities. It's also much more raw in format. The clock doesn't stop at all and the players wear no protective pads or gear.

Two weeks ago was the State of the Origin game, which is a huge rivalry match played three times each year. Queensland and New South Wales pick their best players in Rugby League and put them on a team to battle it out against the rival state. There is a ton of hype for these matches because a lot of homeland pride lies on the outcome. I would compare it to Duke/Carolina, but we all know which one is much more intense.