Girls guide 2 rugby!

So, what are my qualifications for writing this blog?

I can spell Rugby, and I’m a girl

• I once, briefly,  coached a rugby team of 7 or 8 year-old boys
• My husband coached a team ( Shirley Club)
• Buck Shelford is my by marriage cousie-bro (for the curious; his grandfather and my mother-in-law were twins)
• I am a  one-eyed Cantabrian and an All Blacks supporter
• My younger son played for Shirley, and Canterbury in the lowest grade (before a major motor-bike accident)
• I opposed the Springboks playing in NZ and was even arrested in 1981 for protesting
• I’m opinionated and love fun – and these are my best qualifications to write this blog

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• How to pick the best team to follow : If you don’t have a particular local team to follow during the world cup colours are a great way to choose one.

Find the team whose colours suit YOU best and become their fan. If black makes YOU look cute, follow the All Blacks.  If green and gold are your favourite colours well it’s the Australian team for you as that’s their sporting strip.  There are many stripes of red, blue and white.

When the forwards get into a huddle to fight for the ball the technical term is a scrum. Sometimes the “other team” behave badly when in this pack, (cluster or huddle) and have to be sent to the sin bin.

GUEST POST from@prettymagazine on twitter (http://twitter.com/prettymagazine)

It’s very important that you give all players nicknames depending on their looks etc. This especially works if you are watching with other girls too. For instance a player with long hair is (obviously) Goldilocks. A vertically challenged player blessed with say, less than classic good looks might be known as Hobbit. The super hot 6’4 player is ‘Future Husband’. These should then be thrown in to the general conversation and shrieking while watching the game. For example ‘ Come on Hobbit! Throw the ball to Future Husband and stop messing around!’ It’s particularly effective if you all insist upon using these nicknames and will annoy all boys watching with you massively!

Learn history:NZ Rugby started in Nelson – it originated in the mid-1800s, in the UK, when some cheeky bloke called William Web-Ellis picked up the ‘foot’ ball and ran with it: or so I believe!

For your information: touch judges never touch anyone, and hookers are not REAL hookers – they are very import in the scrum as it’s their job to ‘hook the ball’ away for the ‘other’ team. When they do that they become happy-hookers, although this is not an official rugby term.

Learn some NEW ZEALAND rugby songs. check them out here

Impress people by knowing exactly where to buy your tickets to the game … here officially …holders of  scalped tickets will not get into the games!

Compare rugby players thighs

• This tip is from Bearshapedshere whom I met via travel blogs and had coffee with as she set off to travel in New Zealand on a  bike (read her blog). Her advice . . .  check out the size of the thighs on various players or supporters – if they are big, and they usually are  – stand near them to make YOU look petite.

Use Numerology

Pick the player to support and follow by his number ( which as you know equates to his position on the field) For me that would be an  easy choice, as my local team, (Canterbury/Crusaders ) and the All  Blacks #7 is the worlds #1 (Richie McCaw )

Look sporty Even if you are not sporty – wear a fashion label that implies you are. I don’t know if Miss World NZ is sporty or not but I took this photo of her in  trendy Rugby Girl clothes – and of course I wear it but don’t look as great as this young woman does!

Learn the rules and rugby-speak.That will amaze the boys (and other girls too I guess) then pick a team (or player) and support them totally: remember they can do no wrong! A sign at the Christchurch Central library – ‘books with balls’ – Well, rugby is a game with balls! The commentators often make (inadvertently) funny comments when talking about balls and you can too.

Crouch, touch, pause, engage. This is a rugby term used when the forwards get into a huddle to fight for the ball. It can be used as a timing strategy in many situations that need a few seconds countdown. A friend uses it daily in her to get in and out of her apartment

The three biggest men are put in the front row of the scrum, and the next two biggest get behind (they call these men ‘the tight five’ because they hang onto each other tightly) them and try to push the other team backwards. In the ‘olden days’ supporters would call out ‘weight weight’ meaning put more weight into the big shove. My mother embarrassed me by saying “No, don’t wait.’ She needed a guide like this!

The ‘backs’ have mathematical terms for some position names – for someone lousy at figures it is not strange that my teenage love played as ‘fullback’ or #15 rather than one of the five-eights.

Other names such as ‘centre’ #13 and ‘wing’ (11 & 14) are self-explanatory

The tight five is a dangerous place to be especially for ears. Many people don’t like cauliflower, and no-one wants their ears to be called that but many front-rowers have them because of repeated hits to the ear. Once this happens, the person’s ear may look lumpy forever. Some wise players try to prevent this by wearing headgear.

Real rugby balls don’t adorn themselves

Read rugby history .. this link is about the 50 greatest All Blacks.

knowing this will impress your rugby-head mates

New Zealanders love rugby

knowing this will help you talking with kiwis when you get here for the rugby world cup next year! See this video report about this topic from  the NZ Herald

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Thanks to Rugby Girl for the use of the rugby footballs for the balls “glamour photo-shoot”

Contact me (or leave a comment) if you too have advice for girls about rugby

Christchurch Square – The countdown has begun!