Finally, the first of the long awaited Final Reflections! Thank you all for your patience. It took me a while to recover from being nearly held hostage in NZ, my illness and to adjust to this time zone. I still think I'm not quite on Pacific Time yet.

I'm so glad that New Zealand let me go! They had to consult England a few times. Still a colony in so many ways. The Queen is on the money and the national airline can't make a move without consulting the mother country. You'd think if you were in the largest city in NZ and were flying on the official NZ airline, the people there would be able to make an executive decision. But no, they have to call London, which is always asleep because they are 12 hours off from NZ! Not that I am bitter.

Enough of that. I am home now and I'm sure with intensive therapy will move past my new phobia of ankle boots paired with leg warmers. Look at a map of NZ and you will understand. But then, some would say that combination is such a fashion faux pas I don't need a traumatic NZ experience to justify such a phobia. And they would be right. But I digress - on with the topic of the day: Sports Around the World!

Or at least, Sports in the Bit of the World that I Saw. In particular, three sports I personally viewed on TV and further discussed with natives of the region(s) in which they are popular: Rugby, Cricket and Sumo.

Rugby

First up, Rugby, popular in Europe and the Commonwealth. When I traveled to Ireland they were competing in the Six Nations League tournament against France. They lost, but still had a chance in another league against Wales, I think. There are lots of different levels and leagues in which to play this sport. Very popular.

I spoke to some people in Scotland about it, and Ireland too. They like to compare it to Football (which from now on will mean US Style) and are rather smug about the fact that the players don't wear pads. They imply (or often state outright) that this means the players are tougher and more willing to take a few knocks. I have watched both sports, and while I don't claim to be an expert on either, I think it is fairly obvious why rugby players don't wear any protective equipment - they don't NEED any!

It quickly becomes apparent when watching a rugby game that, unlike in football, there is no line of guys whose sole job is to smash into the opposing guys as hard as they can. Everyone is just going for the ball, not protecting/attacking a lone quarterback because there IS no lone quarterback. As far as I can tell, anyone who has the ball can toss it, usually in short lateral throws. So if someone is coming at you, you just get rid of the ball and Presto! - they are no longer after you! None of this tucking-it-into-your-chest-and-diving-for-yards like you see in football. It is more like basketball that way and -Surprise! - they don't wear pads there either!

The scoring is similar to football and yet not too. You get five points for a "try" which is a score, like a touchdown. So why is it called a try? The team didn't just try. They succeeded! That's why they now get the points! Or does it refer to the fact that they now get to "try" for the kick? But why would an act that gets you five points be secondary to an act that can only get two? I may be biased by my greater familiarity with football. The term "extra point" makes sense to me. The icing on the cake of the touchdown, as it was. They call the kicked point in rugby a conversion, which exists in football too, at the same point value, but it is not a kick. Interesting.

The ball can only be thrown sideways or backwards, so it is not an advancing move. Just, as I mentioned before, a way to not get hurt since nobody wears pads. Everyone on the team can throw, and everyone can kick too. As I understand it players can only drop kick at any time. That is where they throw the ball at the ground and kick it just as it bounces up. If it goes through the goal posts it is a "drop goal" (one of the few obvious names) and worth three points. That's as close as they have to a field goal, the difference being that anyone can do it from anywhere on the field. No specialized kicker or special teams or specialized anything, really. I was even reading an official web site that said there are pretty much only forwards and backs as far as positions go, and their roles are "frequently interchangeable". True quote. And, the backs are actually the ones who score, which in my mind would put them up FRONT. Another mystery.

The thing I like best about rugby is the scrum. Short for scrummage. This is when someone fumbles and a loose ball results. Members of opposing teams converge on the ball and surround it, grasping for the ball and linking arms to prevent others from grabbing it and escaping. Every watched five-year olds play what Americans call soccer? No understanding of positions at that age. Scrums look like that. They last until someone has possession of the ball and manages to slip out of the scrum, perhaps with the help of their teammates.

Rugby is often like that. There are no dead balls, unless a try is made. They flip a coin and whichever team wins has it for 7 minutes. Unless there is a scrum and they lose possession, they keep it for all seven minutes, running up and down the field (forward progress not necessary), tossing the ball to each other, until the seven minutes are up. Then they return to the middle, and kick off to the other team, and it all happens again.

So, rugby is really a melding of football and soccer. Or perhaps the link between the two. Soccer existed first, then rugby introduced carrying the ball, and then football further differentiated the team into tacklers and receivers and quarterbacks and special teams and all the rest. It does remind me a lot of soccer, with it's more open stance, mobile players and bi-directional play. Most unlike the rigid lines and roles of football.

One thing rugby does have on football is a better sense of fashion. Rugby shirts just look better on the street than football jerseys. Plus, they have collars. One quote you hear about rugby is that it is "a game for ruffians played by gentleman" (and in college more often gentlewomen now too), and the uniforms reflect that. Perhaps I let that be the last word on the subject.

Well I wrote more than I thought I would on rugby so I'm going to call it a night. Later, (tomorrow, hopefully), cricket and sumo.