It’s the Rugby World Cup, an international competition that lasts over a month, during which time I see my husband for about 27 minutes.
I have fond memories of the Rugby World Cup. I have heaps of overseas mates who are passionate about the sport. Much of their passion wore off on us, as we’d follow them to pubs or sit under tents in the desert and enjoy a pint or two. But to be truthful, rugby for me has always been synonymous with the haka, which I adore. (You’ll see why if you read to the end).
I understand most of the rules of rugby, but the terminology is sometimes lost on me. This is why, when I thought of this post title, I let my husband write it.
Courtesy of my husband, then, here are 13 Rugby Phrases That Sound Dirty But Aren’t.
- The scrum screwed more than 90 degrees.
- The hooker is really dominating.
- Beautiful counter-rucking, absolutely beautiful.
- The offload went forward and in to touch.
- Enough with the argy-bargy.
- The loose head’s bind wasn’t tight.
- The referee has his arm out and is playing advantage.
- The inside centre keeps collapsing the maul.
- The touch judge spotted a high tackle.
- The fly half laid down a perfect grubber.
- Hands in the ruck is a no-no.
- Crouch…touch…pause…engage.
- The winger’s been coming inside his man all afternoon. (Special credit for #13 goes to our Kiwi mate, Grant)
My husband assures me that these actual sentences have been uttered in the World Cup with great seriousness.
The next one, though, is all mine.
14. That was a great haka.
I’ll show you what I mean. Here are the All Blacks (a.k.a. New Zealand) doing the haka before playing Tonga a while ago. Listen to the crowd. Watch as Tonga begins the Sipi Tau before the All Blacks have finished the haka.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eGCsEQ15L4]
Yes, we women love a great haka.
And for those of you who like parody, here is Australia’s version of the haka.
Any phrases from other sports that fall into the If-You-Know-What-I-Mean category?
Love me some male haka. Maybe those 0-4 NFL teams should adopt the haka to get their game on! And if they still lose, hey, at least the crowd had SOME entertaining moments.
I might start watching NFL then. Other than at the Superbowl!
I used to live in NZ so I do miss all that. Only managed to watch one game. I must prioritize better lol. Funny post 🙂
Where did you live in NZ?
I love rugby. I used to play. Our team had a t-shirt one year that said. ‘Try by day and score by night.’
Apparently, this is not an appropriate shirt for a 40 year old woman to wear when walking her daughters to school, as my hubbie told me. 😉
Serious ROFL. I think you should bring that shirt to SiWC. Okay, maybe that’s not quite the audience, but it’d be fun!
Baseball baddies:
Toeing the rubber
Backdoor slider
And then there’s the shuttlecock in badminton. We have a winner!
Oh! And I loved the haka and the Sipi Tau. I have never heard of or seen either of them before. I just spent 30 minutes on youtube watching both. Like I need another obsession.
Karen. I am dying!
I think playing rugby against a team with Samoans or Tongans would possibly be the most painful thing I could think of to do. Scary, even without a haka.
Agreed. Those are big boys.
Oh, haka! I thought you said hookah…
Word association: haka, hookah, hooker, hockey
The last time I saw an All Blacks game live, I was in the front row at the Christchurch stadium with an excellent view of the haka! (Frances quite liked the “rug-ah-bee” video. Cheers for that!)
“The last time I saw an All Blacks game live…” I’ll say that some day!
Where have I been? Why is this my first introduction to haka? Thank you so much. I’m fascinated.
“The hooker is really dominating,” is my favorite. Hmmm … wonder what that says about me. Off to google haka …
Happy ogling. I mean googling.
Enough with the argy-bargy. LoL! This was funny.
Argy-bargy. It’s like a kid’s book should be titled that.
Wow, it’s humbling to know there is something i know absolutely nothing about. Nothing. Seriously, that was like you were speaking in tongues. Love the Haka. Fascinating.
Good to know there are Rugby Widows.
I’m a Golf Widow. It’s all about the hole, IYKWIM.
Speaking in tongues seems to be its own IKYWIM…
And suddenly golf seems like a game with a clear purpose…
I’ve never seen a rugby game, but I think I’m going to start watching now.
I just usually stay for the haka. Then I leave. 🙂
I have to say, number 3 makes me want to play rugby.
Just so someone might one day say to me, “Beautiful counter-rucking, absolutely beautiful.”
A girl can dream…
Yes, umm, counter-rucking. 🙂
I’ve never seen a rugby game either, but I gotta say…that clip may have turned the tides.
Also, Trish….I cannot stop laughing about your shirt and the image of you wearing it to the school.
ha ha
Don’t you think Trish should bring that tee to Surrey?
I think I”m just going to memorize three phrases and use them in all future sporting events.
Brilliant. Let me know how it goes with your tap teacher. 🙂
Great one, Leanne. (You might like Roy and HG, you commentated on the olympics)
whoops, I meant to type ‘who commentated…”
#$%6 typos, eh? 🙂 I’ll check on the commentary. Thanks for commenting!
love it!
Thanks. It was almost too easy. 😉
This is quite possibly the best thing. I’ve read all day.
🙂
This is AWE.SOME, as I have some rugby-happy friends, too.
Argy-bargy – is that Swedish for “chuck the ball?” Oh, SO funny!
It does sound like something the Swedish chef would say, doesn’t it? 🙂
I played rugby in high school … I was the hooker. Also, I had a part-time job as a clown for a hair salon ($4.99 haircuts!).
Bad combo. My friends used to introduce me as a hooker who stood on street corners with heavy make-up, yelling at passersby.
lol … still cracks me up.
I am cracking up too. Oh, how fun. A hooker!
Gosh, and I thought football was exciting with all the penetration and the motion in the backfield.
Well said, my friend.
Oooh. Nice haka. 😀
I know what you mean…
Great post! And there’s another rugby word of the ‘ooer, sounds a bit rude’ variety, currently on a poster in an underpass I use most days out of the Wellington railway station (about 200 metres from the stadium where the RWC games are held). Thruck. It’s when three people get involved in a ruck. Apparently.
The story I’ve heard is that the origins of that haka are also a bit – well, bawdy. While we always think of the pre-match song ‘Ka Mate…’ as ‘the haka’, the term is actually generic – in Maori culture, ‘haka’ means any ritualised song of defiance, often with pukana (staring and eye rolling). It is not a ‘war dance’ as such. The particular All Black one, ‘Ka Mate’ (‘I die – I live’) was reputedly written in the 1810s by the Ngati Toa chief Te Rauparaha, to free himself of shame and assert his mana (status) after having to hide from his would-be killers in a kumara pit, beneath a crouching woman, Te Rangikoaea. There are several versions of the story kicking around, including a suggestion that he was parodying a much older and rather rude song about a romantic encounter,
Curious but, apparently, true!
Matthew Wright
http://mjwrightnz.wordpress.com
http://www.matthewwright.net
Hilarious!
Loved it!
Although I got only 11 seconds of the Australian haka.