Rugby Funny Moments and The Great Crusade!

With a rather large Rugby Union tournament about about to kick off in the land of many sheep, New Zealand (check out some Kiwi Slang bro!), I’ve put together a list of some of the Rugby Funny Moments that have occurred over the years.

Rugby Union (often referred to as ‘cross country wrestling’) is a tough and demanding sport, and every 4 years sees the world’s best teams bash the crap out of each other for a few weeks to see who wins the title of the best team to pass a ball around a park! If you’re looking for a Hollywood version of Rugby Union, check out Invictus which stars Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman.

In a nutshell, soccer (football) players spend 90 minutes a game pretending they’re hurt, while rugby players spend 80 minutes a game pretending they’re not!

Also, I’ve scored a cool junket from Qantas called The Great Crusade – where I’ll be travelling with a few Qantas Wallabies Fans on an Ultimate Supporters trip (ie. Australians) around the North Island of New Zealand for a few days and experiencing what the country has to offer.

God knows what’s going to happen, but it’s probably going to be a lot of fun! There might be some opportunities for me to make a goose of myself by throwing myself off buildings or out of planes 🙂

I’ll be travelling in a campervan with Craig from yTravelBlog, who is a mad keen sports fan! Say hi to @yTravelBlog on Twitter. Stay tuned for some posts about this from September 11 to 18.

Rugby Funny Stuff!

But anyway, in the meantime, check out five of some of the funniest Rugby Moments that have happened over the years.

1. The All Blacks (New Zealand) Choking at the wrong time.

New Zealanders are fanatical about Rugby. They can’t get enough of it. They usually have the best team for years and years, and flog pretty much anyone who is in their way. They were World Champions in 1987, but it’s been slim pickings since. These days the All Blacks seem to choke and crash out of the tournament, leaving four million Kiwis to reach for the anti-depressants for a few months.

Hence, many jokes are sent around about their performances, such as ‘What do you call 15 guys watching the World Cup Final? The All Blacks.’

This is another example of some of the All Blacks choking jokes flying around:

There is enormous pressure on New Zealand to win the World Cup this year, since it’s being played there and the Kiwis have copped a physical and emotional hammering with natural disasters like the Christchurch earthquake.

2. England Win the 2003 World Cup

Even the title sounds funny because no one was used to any English team being ‘World Champions.’ In 2003, they played well to reach the final against hosts Australia. However, their entire attack centred around one man – flyhalf Johnny Wilkinson. For those who are not familiar with rugby, the flyhalf tends to call the shots in terms of what moves to execute.

In terms of England’s strategy, this was to win by milking penalties for Johnny to kick 3 points each time. Unfortunately, it worked.

Hence this piss take of the English Rugby Team in 2003.

 3. The Fans in The Crowd

There’s nothing like going to a game and soaking it all up. For example, there’s nothing like experiencing a Soccer Game in Buenos Aires. I went to a few games of the World Cup in 2003, and it’s good fun. The fans are there for a good time, and they often bring in some funny signs to make sure they get on TV.

Like this one:

This guy’s (ex) wife must have a great sense of humour…

4. Samoan Tackles

Samoa is a small island nation of 200,000 that produces an amazing amount of rugby talent that New Zealand and Australia tend to poach from. They are also known as heavy tacklers and the big teams hate facing them because they are capable of the odd upset, plus the Samoans tend to leave their opposition a bit sore for a few days. Ouch!

Check out this tackle by Brian Lima, otherwise called ‘The Chiropractor’.

5. The Haka – Not The New Zealand Version

The Haka is the traditional spectacle the All Blacks do before each game. Basically, it’s an old Maori tradition that is laying down a challenge. It involves a lot of men shouting, screaming, and sticking their tongues out. Here is a photo I took of the haka at a recent All Blacks versus Wallabies match:

However, there was a funny Haka produced a few years back called the ‘Australian Haka’ which poked a bit of fun at Australian Culture. Check it out! There’s some Aussie Slang spoken too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QflHh0hT6mQ

After reading about these Rugby Funny Moments, Check out Rugby’s Greatest Tries and Rugby’s Greatest Moments.

Stay tuned for my posts on The Great Crusade in mid September! You can watch daily episodes at thegreatcrusade.com from September 10 and follow the #GreatCrusade on Twitter @QantasAirways.

Apparently, I’ll be travelling with this dude: Stay tuned!