Cricket, rugby, and library cards

Today when I was at the Telecom store trying to set up internet access and cable TV at our new house, the two young salesmen tried to educate me about New Zealand sports. They were asking if I wanted the Rugby Channel (I kid you not) or the other Kiwi sports channels. But I declined and told them I don't understand any of those sports anyway. I noted, however, that there's been a lot of cricket on TV lately, which I can't follow at all.

Here's what I learned from the Telecom guys: Cricket is a lot like baseball except instead of running around four bases, they just run back and forth between two bases. (Think of them running from home to 2nd and back) And instead of three guys batting per inning like in baseball, the entire team of 11 gets to bat. Then it's the other team's turn to have their 11 guys bat. But in cricket each team only does this twice, not 9 times like in baseball. There's somethig called an "outing" that may be the same as an "inning" which would be pretty funny if you think about it. I don't really know yet because I haven't learned any of the terminology. I'll work on it.

Anyway, besides cricket, I also admitted that I don't know anything about rugby. Well, the whole office was in an uproar about that one. Everyone agreed that I simply MUST learn about rubgy, because it's the national sport here. In the end, they inspired me to go find some books about rugby at the public library.

So Curt and I took a little field trip to the library and even got our own library cards. Getting a library card was actually pretty exciting because it made me feel like an official Auckland resident and not a tourist. I think it's significant that I got my library card before I got a credit card or a debit card. I LOVE libraries. We spent a delightful evening there browsing through magazines, DVDs, newspapers, and books. There were about 5 shelves full of rugby books in the 796.33 section. I checked out one book called "The Girls' Guide to Rugby" and a children's non-fiction book about how to play rugby. Here's what I know so far:

They have really cool names for the positions:
FORWARDS:
• Hooker
• Loose-head prop
• Tight-head prop (the hooker+loosehead+tighthead combined are also called the front-rowers)
• Locks (also called the second-rowers)
• Blind-side flanker
• Open-side flanker
• Number 8 (Yes, that's the name of the position. Does this guy always wear number 8 on his jersey?)
BACKS:
• Half-back
• First five-eighth (I am NOT making these up)
• Second five-eighth
• Left wing
• Centre
• Right wing
• Full-back
Don't you love those terms? I'm especially fond of the" Loose-head prop" and the "Second five-eighth." I need to continue my research and find out what those names mean or where they came from. It's hard for me to imagine little kids growing up wanting to become a "Second five-eighth" but that's exactly what the children's book was about!

Now for the scoring: They get five points for a "try." To me, a "try" would mean they attempted to get the ball over the line but didn't make it. But I am wrong. A "try" means they DID get the ball over the line. They scored! They scored a "try." I can tell this is going to take a while before I am rugby-literate.