Written Sunday 22/03/2009

FROM MY SEAT OF KNOWLEDGE,  CHAPTER 1.

Weekend of 20/03/2009.

The weekend certainly started with a bang.  Invited into a Corporate Box for the Melbourne Storm vs Broncos match  at Suncorp,  and what a tremendous experience.  It was a great night,  at a great location to watch footy,  with great seats,  and fantastic food.  Many thanks to the guys from Wickhams Freightlines and farms for the invite,  and for paying the bill.  Wickhams Freightlines and Farms,  to the best of my knowledge is based in Killarney,  a picturesque town near Warwick in Queensland.  Killarney is also home to the mad Columbian that lead this tour for some of us.

As it turned out,  there were people from various backgrounds,  New South Welshmen, a Zimbabwean Rugby Union people,  an AFL man,  and of course our facilitator for the evening,  a mad Columbian and did you know,  there was even a personality there from Goodndiwindi.

There was even a surprise organized by the Wickham guys,  Shane Webcke,  of course a local from the Warwick/Allora region,  dropped in and had a drink and a chat,  and presented a couple of signed Broncos jerseys to people in the box.  Of course no one gets away free and he was terrorized by the 150 kilogram mad Columbian and was looking a little uneasy at one stage.  Webby still looks the goods after a couple of years out of the game, and you would have to live on Mars if you were no aware just how good he was in the game of rugby league.

The night at the footy finished and of course those that wanted to,  which was most,  were lead further astray on the streets of Brisbane by the mad Columbian. I do think the Goondiwindi connection may have surged into a joint lead role at some stage in the evening too though. That is a very scary thought,  and I decided to retire to the confines of a Brisbane hotel.  Again,  many thanks to the guys from Wickhams Freightlines and Farms for the invite.  IT was a great evening.  On to the weekend's footy.

The Suncorp match was a good one,  with Slater and Folau providing some of that freakish stuff we get used to.  I thought Inglis was carrying an injury that was worse than we had heard about,  just was very quiet for a man that can turn a game all by himself.  However,  I am not here to re hash the game.  Watching the replay,  with Andrew Voss and Ben Ikin doing the commentary,  a couple of comments caught my ears and need comment.  Voss said "I don't want to start a league vs union debate here,  but we had Lote Tuqiri on the Footy Show last night and I can't understand why people play rugby union when there is this game with so many opportunities to run with the football"  Ben Ikin said,  "no let's bring on the argument".  Now that's not word for word,  there was mention of wingers not getting the ball in rugby etc etc,  but you get the gist of the comments.  These comments don't make me angry,  crikey I like both games alot.  They do show a lack of understanding of rugby though by the commentators.  Along time ago when I was studying French at school,  the teacher told us that when speaking in French,  think French,  it was a waste of time trying to think in English  and translate.  Same applies here,  when watching rugby league, think rugby league,  when watching rugby union,  think rugby union.  While the two games become similar in some aspects,  in others they remain worlds apart,  so important to think differently when watching different codes.  Bad games in both codes are just that,  almost impossible to watch,  good games are exactly the opposite.  Of course then rugby delivers the Chiefs vs the Blues game,  with 14 tries scored,  and at least 6 of them by wingers.  It was a game to behold,  with some big hits,  plenty of clean running and plenty of ball movement (league followers like plenty of ball movement).  Rugby then followed it up with one of the worst games in Super rugby history,  the Waratahs vs the Crusaders.  In any case,  I counted Tuqiri's carries,  in between being asleep,  and came up with 10 of them.  I guess what the guys thinking only league don't see are the other involvements,  in particular a couple of strong cleanouts that actually maintained possession, that NSW were just not good enough to use.  League has it's bad games too,  just not as many as rugby at the moment.  In fact,  we here at 15manrugby,  all one of us,  have been far more critical of rugby over the years than of league.  We like the structure of league and the professionalism that we see them operate with,  most of the time.

The highlight of the Waratahs match for us here at 15manrugby was the long and strong carry by prop Benn Robinson.  One of the boys recently watched a documentary on hippopotami and thought that Benn ran very much like a hippo.  Now that may sound detrimental at first glance,  until you study the hippo.  On short legs,  they run very, very quickly and anything between them and water is in danger of being run over.  So when you analyse it,  Benn's run being compared to a hippo is actually quite complimentary.  Woeful game in every other aspect.

Back on the Chiefs/Blues game,  the league stalwarts would speak of poor defence and the like,  and they may well be correct,  but the game was played at such a pace,  defences had no time to reset,  which is a goal of some sides,  not the Waratahs obviously.  There was plenty of time to make a coffee while scrums were reset there.  Oh, and Mark Lawrence reffed the game very well,  the breakdown area was tremendous,  clean and crisp,  with Lawrence being cool and calm at all times.

Back at Suncorp this Saturday for the Chiefs vs Reds,  promises to be a cracker,  but those that promise sometimes turn out to be duds.  Lets hope we see an enterprising,  tough and free running encounter,  with plenty of Blood spilt for the cause.

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