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| Ready for the Rugby World Cup??? |
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of posts about the 2007 Rugby World Cup from Ian Frentz, Viator’s quality assurance (QA) manager and hardcore rugby fanatic. Somehow Ian convinced us to give him 10 weeks’ leave so that he can follow the matches in person. Stay tuned for his reports live from France. Until then, we’ve asked Ian to explain the game (yes, some of us are Americans, we need all the help we can get when it comes to rugby). Ian has also tipped his winners in Pools A & B and Pools B & C.
It’s coming! The ‘Game They Play In Heaven’ has its showpiece event later this year in France, and I’m so excited I’m drooling on my keyboard! Why? Because I’ll be there!
If you don’t know what I am talking about, it’s the 6th Rugby World Cup, being hosted (mostly) by France in September and October 2007. Rugby fanatics from around the world will descend on France to cheer on their teams competing for the ultimate rugby prize, the William Webb Ellis Cup.
For those who don’t know the game of rugby union, picture American football (which is derived from rugby) without helmets and protective padding, or soccer (I refuse to call it football) where you can use your hands. Most would be a little familiar with the game, however, as it’s played in some form in over 100 countries.
For those who aren’t, we’ve created a primer about the great game of rugby union, along with Viator’s overview of the tournament and teams. You can check out the official Rugby World Cup website, too.
Rugby for Beginners
Mud. Sweat. Beer. Two teams going at it hammer and tongs for 80 minutes. The bone-jarring thud of a heavy tackle. The impact of nearly two tonnes of man-flesh colliding in a scrum engagement. The leap of a lineout jumper reaching for the sky after a soaring ball. The roar of the crowd as a player makes a break and sprints for the try-line. It’s all music to my ears. Don’t know what I am talking about? Well, here are some basics to get you started.
Rugby union football – often referred to as simply rugby or union – is an outdoor sport played by two teams of 15 players with a prolate spheroid-shaped ball. (Editor’s note: Ian, what exactly is a prolate spheroid-shaped? Maybe you can enlighten us in a future post…) There’s also a quicker seven-a-side version of the game, called rugby sevens (that’s a whole other blog), but the tournament later this year in France is the more traditional 15-a-side game.
The game was born in 1823 during a game of soccer, when (it’s rumored) William Webb Ellis, then a 16-year-old boy at Rugby School in England, caught the ball and ran with it towards the opponents’ goal line. It was an amateur sport right up until 1995, when the game finally became professional. Many of the values of rugby come from its rich history, traditions and the camaraderie amongst the players. It’s governed worldwide by the International Rugby Board (IRB), founded in 1886, who also publish the game’s (many, many) laws and rankings.
The first Rugby World Cup was held in New Zealand in 1987, where yours truly was sitting on the concrete stands at Eden Park behind the goalposts, watching the mighty New Zealand All Blacks beat France in the final. Back then it had been a struggle to get the world-cup format up and running, but 20 years later, the Rugby World Cup has become the world’s third biggest sporting event. The organizing committee predicts 2.4 million spectators at Rugby World Cup 2007, and the event is being broadcast by 250 networks to four billion TV viewers around the planet – not bad for a game which has only been professional for a dozen years.
The Rugby World Cup Tournament
The 6th Rugby World Cup is being held from 7 September, 2007, to 20 October, 2007. Twelve cities will be hosting games: Bordeaux, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Lens, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Étienne and Toulouse.
OK, some of you may have realized that Cardiff and Edinburgh are on the other side of the Channel, and aren’t actually part of France. Way back in 2003, when the IRB was deciding who would host the 2007 tournament, France promised games to Wales and Scotland to secure votes. So some spectators will be tucking into haggis and black pudding, instead of baguettes and brie, and washing it down with a whisky instead of a fine Beaujolais.
While the tournament doesn’t get under way until September, qualifying for the tournament has been going on for almost three years. There are 20 qualifiers who’ll be competing in the tournament. The first eight (the traditional power-houses of the game), qualified automatically for France 2007 by reaching the quarter-final stage in the 2003 World Cup that was held in Australia. Everybody else had to go through the qualification process, which began when Andorra played Norway way back in September 2004. In total 86 countries have participated in 192 matches so far before the World Cup tournament has even started!
In the coming weeks I’ll bring you the low-down on the teams, the tournament pools and play-offs, as well as my picks, pans and predictions for the 2007 Rugby World Cup (click here to see Ian’s picks for Pools A & B),
Keep reading Ian’s tips for winners in Pools A & B and Pools B & C or read about things to do at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
June 18th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Nice one Ian, I look forward to updates from the road and seeing some photos, especially from the final (still can’t believe you managed to score tickets for that!).
I’m sure it will be completely unbiased and no favouritism shown to the All-Blacks at all…
June 20th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Sounds like the Wallaby fans are coming out of the woodwork, Whatyawantabe. You can always tell, because they start harping on about the mighty AB’s choking again, rather than extol the virtues of the “veteran” (read “zimmerframe”) Wallaby backline…
I sure hope the All Blacks can get across the line this time, otherwise the next 4 years will be unbearable !!
June 25th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Ian, I’ve done the same - 8 wks worth anyway. Same deal, but actually writing a book - rugby, the French, tourism run amok, etc. Not sure of itinerary. Following instinct and whereabouts of old mates coming in for the tournament. May follow the Eagles through Lens, St Etienne, Montpellier. If we’re in the same venue at the same time, I’ll get the first round.
Zerox
July 1st, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Hi Kasun, not sure who will be broadcasting the games in Sri Lanka yet, but if you have no luck with any of the TV stations in your part of the world, you will be able to view all of the 48 matches online. Check out http://www.rwcplus.com/ for more details, closer to kick-off for the first game.
Hope that helps !
Frentzy
PS. Was in Sri Lanka about 18 months ago for a holiday, you have a fantastic country!
July 30th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Why isn’t there a rugby channel available on Foxtel? I’ll pay! Money no object, when it comes to my weekly dose of rugby viewing.
And while we wait for the WC to arrive, I’m left feeling like I’m going through a re-conditioning program for rugby fans.
Oh, Frentzy, why doesn’t Foxtel show more Air NZ Cup matches?
August 2nd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I know what you mean, Wild Man!! Fox Sports in Australia is not like back home in the Land of the Long White Cloud, where there is the dedicated Rugby Channel… And Fox Sports only plays the 2 Air NZ cup matches per week, at ridiculous times (like middle of the working day), so I never get to watch my beloved BoP running around… Crikey, I even found myself watching Currie Cup the other day, so desparate I was for a rugby fix !!
But don’t despair, for the truly desparate rugby heads out there, the Mazda ARC competition starts in another week (the new rugby comp in Australia designed to create a third tier of rugby between the Super 14 and good ol’ club rugby, to give Australia more player depth). There is a lot of people out there who reckon it won’t fly, but personally, I reckon Australia has to make it work, if they want to remain a powerhouse in world rugby. It may bankrupt the ARU until they get the crowds turning up, but in the long term, it’ll be good for Aussie rugby. The ABC will be showing a couple of games per weekend on the telly, one on ABC, and the other on ABC2 Digital. It’ll be a good filler until the Rugby World Cup action starts a month later.
And my tip for the team to win the inaugaral Mazda ARC championship ? “Perth Spirit”, mainly because it has most of the Western Force players in the one team (other than those in the Wallaby World Cup squad), and there is such a huge rugby supporter base over in WA since the Force started up 2 years ago… For the wooden spoon, either the new “Melbourne Rebels”, or either of the Queensland teams, “Ballymore Tornados” or “East Coast Aces”. Who thinks up these names ?
For more info on the new ARC comp, click here.
Cheers Frentzy
August 16th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Very interesting article! Filled with very useful information, I don’t think I’m going to be able to go to the World Cup right now.. It’s a bit late, I should have made arrangements earlier
This site has allot of useful travel info! Definately gonna recommend it to my friends!
I came across a website called The Rugby World Cup Fanzone, they have loads of info and stastics about the upcoming world cup! looking forward to more of your posts!
Go New Zealand!
August 16th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Thanks James, appreciate your comments…
If you do find yourself in France next month tho’, according to the official ticketing site ( http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/ticketing/index.html ), none of the pool games have actually been sold out yet, as more tickets were released at the end of July. Some are ‘unavailable’, like all the France pool games, but you may find that more tickets to these games may get released over the next couple of weeks.
However, with the tournament so close to kicking off, I would recommend that you buy your tickets when you get to France, to make sure you get them in your hot little hand. Myself and a few others that I know who have pre-ordered their tickets via the internet have experienced difficulties in receiving them. The courier packs with the tickets arrived in Sydney with parts of my delivery address missing, and parts of my contact phone number missing as well (maybe the French can’t spell !!). It was only through a lot of luck and the persitance of a guy at DHL that I managed to get them at all. I have a friend of a friend who hasn’t received any of her game tickets, and she leaves Australia in a couple of weeks, and is FREAKING OUT because she has paid so much money for tickets that she hasn’t got yet !!
If you can’t make it, make sure you catch the games on the telly.
Cheers Frentzy
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:14 am
Lads,
You know you can watch any rugby you want live on mediazone.com. I have been watching all the tri nations live or anytime I want and has all the NPC games. Go on Countie you “good?” things.
Good reception as well, considering it is over the net. Issue is that the bloody RWC is 24hrs delay.
Have scoped out that ESPN+ has the RWC games live… problem is, i dont think that is part of my Cable Vision package here in Mex.
Any thoughts… as I am starting to panic. Wanting to see the Aussie take a spanking… live.
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Hey Pete,
Yeah - bit of a drag waiting for 24 hours before you can watch any games through the RWC feed on the internet, via the http://www.rugbyworldcupvideo.com/ site. Don’t they realise that this is the NOW generation ?!?! There is no way you can avoid the score of a game for 24 hours these days…
Not sure about the ESPN+ playing games in Mexico. However, I do know that Setanta Sports in North America is going to be showing all the games LIVE on Setanta Broadband. Check out http://na.setanta.tv/na_index.htm for more details…
Hope that helps,
Cheers Frentzy
September 8th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Hello There,
You are probably in the middle of pre-match buildup at the moment but I am wondering if you know what channel will be broadcasting the World Cup in Turkey. I am in the middle of nowhere but I know they have Fox TV, do you know if they are showing it?
Really want to watch the ABs on their path to World Cup Glory. I see you list a website if there is no TV action I will check this out.
Many thanks.