Rugby Rugby Rugby! Oi Oi Oi!

Hey everyone, and welcome to March in Bath! Daffodils are popping up everywhere, the days are getting longer and snow is just a distant memory! Apologies for the excessive inter-blog interval, we've both had our heads down getting stuck into work. Both still really enjoying it though!

The other weekend Bec scored us tickets to see Bath Rugby take on the Saracens of London. Now neither of us have a great deal of love, understanding or even vaguest interest in this sport, but as rugby (union) is the winter sport in Bath, and they play at one of the most picturesque grounds in the country, we thought we should give it a go.

Sadly, upon arriving at The Rec with thousands of other Bath fans, we realised neither of us actually knew the first thing about rugby union, other than Johnny's usual bulldust and bluff. So we can't really report on the standard of the game, other than it started out very well for Bath, who got up to 13-0 at one stage thanks to some penalty kicks and then a converted try. Then the rain started coming down pretty heavily and this (in our opinion) pretty ugly game got a whole lot uglier.
It's sometimes difficult to tell with Union, where kicking the ball out on the full is regarded as a clever thing to do, but even our untrained eyes could see that the drop the ball, slip over and fumble wildly strategies were perhaps being overused somewhat. Saracens mounted a huge comeback, using apparently-advanced rugby techniques such as run fast and change direction which confused the Bath players enough to level the score at 13 apiece.

Saracens then moved into the lead at 13-20 with just ten minutes to go. The tension in the air was as thick as the players' ears! Could Bath manage to identify each other when everything was covered with mud? Would someone's collar-bone finally give out in one of those crunching scrums? And where was that ball thing again?


Luckily Bath managed to remember which way to go and ran in a try with just a handful of minutes left, converting to make it 20-all. And there it finished. Our first (and we suspect last) Rugby Union game. Where were the great chants and huge atmosphere of the FA Cup soccer? Where was the skill and athleticism of an AFL match? Oh well, we did have a nice view... ;-)