Rugby

Hey everyone, it has been awhile since I have updated so I figured I would fill you in on what I have been doing the past couple weeks. I haven't had much time to do any traveling because I had tests to study for, so not much of an update there. I have had Rugby games every Saturday for the last couple weeks and it has been quite a journey. First of all I'll tell you about the Rugby club. The Rugby club has its own set of Rugby fields that are about a 15 minute train ride from the city. Every Saturday, I hop on the train with some other team mates and head to the game. The train ride is actually pretty amazing, you get to see a lot of the nice areas outside of the city which mainly consists of green hills leading right up to the ocean which always seems to have a turquoise tint. The actual Rugby Club building is pretty cool as well, there is a full on bar inside and they also serve some awesome food (by awesome I mean burgers, hot dogs, and fries) that tastes amazing after a game. The game itself is intense to say the least. My position is loosehead prop, I have the honor of completely destroying my body by the end of a game. The prop is in the front line of the scrum which is that giant mob pushing against eachother if you have ever seen a rugby game. After the scrum you pretty much never get a break. You are always running to secure the ball for your team, or you are running the ball straight up to consistantly gain a little extra yardage, or you are on defense trying to tackle. So there is absolutely no break. Which is why after the game there is always a couple cold beers waiting for you on the sideline (I don't condone this activity for those of you trying to lose weight). Then there is the boat races..........The boat races are not what you think. Kind of like the decieving word "crosstraining" some of you know what that ACTUALLY means and no it is not any type of physical activity. The "Boat Race" is a drinking competition. Few members of the rugby team are selected to compete against the other teams in trying to down a "jug" of beer the fastest. Here I thought I was going to learn to sail but instead I get thrown into the midst of a drink off. Well needless to say we usually do pretty well. Not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing. As for the members of my team, alot are native to new zealand but a lot are also international. Some of my good friends on the team are from India, the Netherlands, England, Sri-Lanka, France (we refer to this guy as "Frenchie"), and also Chile. It makes for a lot of fun having a team with so many different nationalities. Well I guess the only other thing to address would be our record...........we suck. We havent won a game yet. We are getting better though, we played a good team the other day and only lost by 2 tri's (like touchdowns) which believe it or not is good for us. Its a work in progress. Well I hope you guys enjoyed the blog and I hope everything is going well back home. Keep workin hard and show everyone that Stevenson Fitness is the best gym out there!!!