Eli with the Royals

Elijah enjoyed a successful season of playing rugby union with the Royals (he's back row on the left hand side)

His team was unbeaten throughout the season (Canberra is split into North and South) and the final was played against the winners of the Northern Division (Gunghalin) a game they narrowly lost out by a try scored in the last minute.

I find rugby union a baffling game. I've watched a bazillion games over many years and I still wonder sometimes if even the referees have a full understanding of the sport. Certainly a lot of the players, whether aged 9 or 59 seem to be in the dark about exactly what's going on. Someone told me it's apparently because there's always a LOT going on. The main attribute as a player seems to be to remain polite at all times.

I was chuffed for Eli's success. Certainly his team was well drilled and they all (kind of) knew where they should stand at any juncture and what their particular roles were. It was apparent when they played less disciplined sides that it wasn't just a case of winning the occasional skirmish - although often the biggest and brawniest kid usually DID emerge as the victor. 

Eli could describe to me what he was doing, and I get the whole idea of backs and forwards and that play is continual but like the professional game whenever there was a foul everyone on the touchline was always at a bit of a loss to describe what had happened. So much subjectivity.

Perhaps I'm a simpleton - in football if someone is tripped then a foul is awarded, if the ball goes out it's a throw-in. In rugby there's a myriad of weird rules that help the rugby fan pretend that it's a sport for the intellectual. That's why if you ask someone to describe what's going on, following a critical match deciding penalty everyone looks at their shoes or umms and ahhs - they're clearly far too clever to be able to describe it.