Rugby Union

Google reader turned up this off beat bit of information:
South Korea seal Asian Five Nations second spot.
Good going Korea!

It is no surprise that Japan finished first with 4 out of 4 wins. On Asia Proper (the real Asian powers are Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Island) there are very few teams that can compete with, never mind beat Japan at Rugby. I must say that I was surprised to hear that South Korea came in second considering that Hong Kong was a British Colony until not so long ago. I only know of one club in Korea.

South Korea suffers from the one of the same problem that that Black people in South Africa suffer from. You need GRASS to play rugby. Unlike football, you can’t play on the sand and gravel that most schools here seem to have. Therefore, there is no possibility to get it in to a decent level at amongst the youth. Let us not forget that we will have to take students away from they over full studying times. However, if the Taekwondo studios are considered Hagwons, then maybe we can start a Rugby Hagwon?

I can hardly remember this about Japan beating Korea article from Reuters earlier this season, but I suppose it fits on with this post.

Also a link the the Asian Five Nations.

 

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After reading the article I remembered that I never watched last week’s match between “my team” and current champions *cough*, the Bulls and the Cheetahs. I call them “my team” because even thought the same players play in the Super 14 as in the Curry Cup, the team name is not the same and in theory they can draft in player from other provinces for the duration of the Super 14 tournament, which they can’t do in the Curry Cup.

My mother told me that the match was good, but I didn’t expect this. I stopped following the season after the first few games because the Bulls were not just loosing, they were embarrassing. It hurts to see your team loose in the way they lost in the first part of the season. Somehow they managed to turn things around and won their last 4 matches, each looking better than the previous.

I downloaded the game and sat down to watch. It started with the Cheetahs scoring quick tries. I thought to myself that my mother would not say the game was good if we lost by a mile, so I was still relaxed. The Bull managed to hold out and score two sudden a bit tried later on. The first half ended with the score at 18-17 for the Bulls. When the teams came back the game turned in to a massacre. The Bulls were running rampant, seemingly scoring tries at will and racking up 42 point, mostly in tries to the Cheetahs’ lone 3 point penalty. In rugby, 60-20 is a huge win/loss, no matter what was happening in the game. Pierre Spies is back and the rugby world is looking out for him again. The man made a great comeback after serious illness, but the star of this match for me was first the Right Wing, Ndungane, and then closely behind him the Full Back, Kirchner. The Left Wing and last years world player of the year, Habana seems to have joined the land of the living recently and made a big impact on the game as well. Rugby365 has a full report here.

The semi finals are being player this weekend and then the finals next week. After the Domestic Seasons start in the Australia, South African and new Zealand while the international test matches will be played them in the Tri Nations, possibly the strongest single Rugby tournament in the world with the Super 14 close behind. I digress. After the recent performances by the Bulls I can’t wait to get the Curry Cup under way. We won the Vodacom Cup last week and maybe we can now get the big brother as well.