Comments on: The Full Lineout

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 11:47:22 +0000

Hey personal coach, remember that’s ‘to’, not ‘from’. I’m just saying.

By: Personal coach

Personal coach — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 11:09:31 +0000

Hey,Maria. Your position requires a steady and accurate feed of balls to Tom. Some people have all the opportunities.

By: bza

bza — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 08:26:41 +0000

Sold your soul for a couple of brioche. What would Gran think?

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 07:59:55 +0000

Well spotted bza, but Kieran may be closer to reality than you think. I’m wearing a blue jersey which is quite the done thing here in France. Allez les bleues!

By: bza

bza — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 07:46:35 +0000

Am I misreading the accompanying graphic, or does it represent Ted Barlow as English, and Maria as of a different nationality than her brother?

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:16:23 +0000

My friend Gareth, who is now Chair of Classics at Columbia, was at Llanelli Grammar at the same time as Jonathan Davies. Once a boy broke his leg there and the coach yelled “Play on, play on!” pz, the rules look fluid because this thread has referred to four different types of rugby so far, not to mention sevens. They’re all more different than baseball and softball.

By: Jacob T. Levy

Jacob T. Levy — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 23:13:37 +0000

I’ll bet Eugene can take y’all by himself! Well, he can do everything else; why not?

By: Max

Max — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:14:35 +0000

You’ll never match our Super-Bowl half-time shows.

By: Tom Runnacles

Tom Runnacles — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:05:30 +0000

I’ve very little experience of Rugby – in either code – since I didn’t go to that kind of school. However, I seem to remember being placed on the wing when I did play. I think there was a sadistic PE teacher involved, who knew where short, skinny chaps would most be likely to take damage. Ow.

By: PZ Myers

PZ Myers — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 21:25:26 +0000

From some of the descriptions above, it does sound like “rugby” is European for “calvinball”.

By: Mrs Tiltoninho

Mrs Tiltoninho — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 17:37:45 +0000

Sadly, we at A Fistful of Euros can only field eleven players. Anyone up for footie? The side is shaping up nicely under player-manager Nick Barlow; no comment at all on the rumour we've been acquired by a Russian bajillionaire with a hankering for silver.

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 17:17:07 +0000

The Liberal Coalition will take your challenge! We may not know the first thing about Rugby but there are thirty of us.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 15:58:19 +0000

We’ve got two Aussies and an Irishman on our bench. Top THAT! Well those jersey colours on the team lineup aren’t just for fun, y’know. We’ve got two Aussies as well, three Irish people, a Welshman, a Hungarian, and assorted Englishmen and Americans. So you’re in trouble.

By: Maria

Maria — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 15:56:43 +0000

Cool – I always wanted to be a scrum-half! Without the nasty business of tackling, winter practice, and being chased through a quarter acre of mud by angry 180lb men of course. Which reminds me that watching the England-France match on french telly was a slightly odd experience. No half-time commentary at all, but plenty of segues to on-the-run ink and paint cartoons caricaturing the action, and scary close ups of Serge Betsen post-match. He’s still my favourite though. And on french tv, the winning team was still posing for photographs long after the stadium had emptied. And the ref was Irish, but bi-lingual in french and english as one of his parents was french. Just thought you’d like to know… Forget all this rugby union and rugby league stuff, miking the ref is the best development in years.

By: Cryptic Ned

Cryptic Ned — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 15:48:18 +0000

I’m afraid anyone who doesn’t know the difference between Rugby Union and Rugby League probably won’t understand statements like “If you kick into touch in League, the game is restarted with a scrum against the head for the kicking side.”.