Rugby

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Sunday October 14, 2007
I didn't think that I could find a sport I enjoyed as much as hockey. But until now I have never watched an entire rugby game. On the 13th, the semi-finals for the world cup were on: England vs. France. England was down for almost the whole game until the last 10 minutes - it was 8 to 9 and England scored twice making the final score 14 to 9. They wear no pads, like in American Football, and it seems like someone is hurt or injured about every 2 minutes. Unlike American Football, you can only make backward passes and if you get tackled the ball isn't down but you have to release it and someone else on your team, or sometimes the other team, picks it up and can run it or pass it. Then on Sunday, it was South Africa vs. Argentina for the second semi-final game. Argentina got creamed, and South Africa has this one player who can run the ball really well. Their passes are also very quick. Last month when they played England, they scored 36 and England had 0, so hopefully England can step it up for the Final.
Sunday October 21, 2007
Well, England lost. It was still a good game. We went across the street to the Nag's Head to watch the game on big screen T.V.'s. A controversial call in the first half which, if it would have gone England's way would have put them ahead and could have changed the whole game. But as it was, South Africa went into the half ahead and continued to pull ahead and won. One thing that I noticed while watching the games was the lack of commercials. There were no commercial breaks every 5 or 10 minutes. The first half - 40 minutes - was played in its entirety, as was the 2nd half. The only commercials took place during halftime. It was wonderful to watch an uninterrupted game! The size of the cup though was something that surprised me. It was small; it looked maybe a little taller than a person's head and not much wider if any. In comparison to say, the Stanley Cup, which is the NHL's championship cup which is huge, this one was tiny. And it was a world cup!

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