How did you get involved into rugby?

[bates]

Hi, just wanna know how you guys got involved into rugby.

I saw my first game on tele; it was NZ vs ENG.
I was very impressed by it ( I was 16 orso)
I decided to go to NZ, which I did.
Saw more and more games, also became a Chiefs fan and a Crusader fan ( I really like Ali's game) badman

As I'm not from a commonwealth country the more populair sports are, Soccer, tennis, B-ball etc...

But how did you get the virus?
Peace

 

[BLR]

I am of Kiwi stock, I was born and bred rugby, I used to watch it with my dad often staying up late at night when I was 5-ish to watch the November tests (well it was late to me) and remember vividly when I was living in New Zealand for a while watching Otago at their peak when they gave the Ranfurly shield a good go. So yeah, it's always been there.

 

[bates]

I was wondering, cause most of my Kiwimates don't play rugby ( all of them surf, make music).
Is there a kind of pressure from the parents or just the feeling of being proud to be kiwi or something else.
Cause my dad played soccer his entire life and now he's a headcoach.
While me, I started swimming and playing B-ball and my bro he is active in athlectics.

 

[dullonien]

Being born Welsh. Enough said lol.

 

[Sir Speedy]

After our first Grand Slam. I missed every match live, bought the highlights DVD and got into it after that.
I wasn't jumping on any 'Grand Slam bandwagon'; I (we) had to endure two years of failure after that.
I started supporting Llanelli after they got to the Powergen Cup final; in this case I probably supported them solely because they were a good side...

 

[BLR]

I was wondering, cause most of my Kiwimates don't play rugby ( all of them surf, make music).
Is there a kind of pressure from the parents or just the feeling of being proud to be kiwi or something else.
Cause my dad played soccer his entire life and now he's a headcoach.
While me, I started swimming and playing B-ball and my bro he is active in athlectics.[/b]

Well I was born as an Australian and was taught that rugby is the number one game, so there was pressure there but I still kept my Australian-ness. I keep up to date with everything New Zealand and will prob get dual citizenship one of these days but am very proud of my country. Plus it makes for some good housely tension of Bledisloe cup night.

 

[bates]

Yeah, they all support the AB, but most of them are born and raised Aucklanders, Wellingtoners or from Christchurch.
The national league is not their cup of tea.
Also would like to have dual citizenship :lol:

 

[fcukernaut]

Both my parents are Canadian as am I, but my folks decided to move to NZ when i was 9/10 years old. I remember watching 10mins of the NZ vs Eng at the '99 world cup and my dad said that's the sport you're going to be playing when you get down there. So that would be my first introduction but I don't remember anything other than one pick and go by Byron Kelleher. I'd say the moment it really propelled me into the game was probably Otago vs Canterbury, I was in the old embankment and a bunch of the students from Otago came up and they were just off their face plastered and the chirping and banter between the themselves and some of the other supporters were just hilarious. But at that moment it really got into my head just the level of respect there is amongst rugby fans and how no matter what side you're on you can still share a drink with the opposing fans. And then after that I was just absolutely hooked. I still get up at 3am every saturday morning to watch either Canterbury or the All Blacks play and I imagine I will until I die.

 

[bates]

Yeah I also noticed it, when you compare it with soccer it's 1 big war outside.

I remeber drinking way too much beers with Aussies after France kicked out NZ, Australia was kicked out of the WRC earlier that day.

 

[BLR]

I remeber drinking way too much beers with Aussies after France kicked out NZ, Australia was kicked out of the WRC earlier that day.[/b]

I was a hermit for about 4 months after that day.

 

[Fa'atau82]

I got into rugby at school age 13 as the numbers were short. I also played Field Hockey and athletics and the rugby coach asked me to training.

I was very successful in the team, i was very fast (100m in 12 seconds, standing start) and difficult to tackle and i scored a try in every game i played. Still didn't know much about the game at this stage.

I then joined up with the local club and we was playing union by then. Much tougher than the 'league' style we played.

I had a rough time at the club in the season i was there as i had to adjust to new rules, although i was voted Player's player of the season for the B team, and i also broke into the A team for 5 straight games and scored against Richmond (from the premiership at that time) and had some quality tries and games.

I was on the verge of a Kent U-16 call-up. All this after only 2 seasons!

Then i quit the club after it was apparent that the coaches just selected their favourites and i haven't played regularly since.

Since then, i had a stint away from it with basketball.. but came back to it nearly 2 years ago after i married a Samoan girl.

And here i am, diehard modder for EA Rugby. It hurts less, but it considerably more frustrating!

 

[Steve-o]

I don't ever remember not having a rugby ball. But only started watching on and off when I was around 5 when I won R15 for getting the closest score against my dad and brother of a Natal vs Transvaal game (my dad chipped in for our bets ). Starting playing rugby at age 6 at a very proud and strong rugby school in the Zululand area, became the u/11 A team captain playing openside flanker that won the local league (still proud about that one! ) but broke my collar bone and missed the tour to Cape Town, next year got selected for the u/13A at right wing played like **** and told the coach I wanna play flank, he said I'm too small. So I quit and joined the u/12A, became captain playing at flank and we went unbeaten the whole season.
That's when I really started taking to rugby, although me and bro played rugby against each other every day since I was 6 in the backyard (it always ended in with a few punches thrown :lol: ). Cricket was banned at home because we kept braking windows. I suck at cricket BTW

 

[bates]

Nice stories guys.
Concerning cricket, never got the same passion for it as rugby, maybe I should play it more often.

 

[Steve-o]

EDIT- The way I wrote it makes it sound like I was in the u/11 at 6, I wasn't I was 11 lol

 

[alexrugby]

Once when I was young child 6years old, just before I left to school I saw Georgian rugby players at TV in morning nwes and I saw big boys with strange kind of balkl in their hands and I fell in love onve and at all with this AMAZING play

Rugby 4 Ever

Does my history look like a FairyTale but its truth :cheers:

Cheers friends

Georgia captain Ilia Zedginidze holds aloft the national flag during the Rugby World Cup 2003 with old Georgian flag in his hands

Georgians on RWC 2007

 

[jonathanumpherville]

A few friends introduced me to the game itself, saw a few highlights on TV of Rugby matches, union and league. Read about it online, got the Rugby for Dummies book about a year and change ago and I've been in love with the sport ever since. Reading and learning more about the history each day. Only played in a handful of games to date but I love it and I am totally addicted.

Also, surprising to most... I don't really like Hockey at all, go figure.

 

[Corywalker]

I started playing when I was 14, my brother had already been playing for a year, and one of the kids in my school came up to me and said, hey, your brother is on the club team just up the road, you should join, you're pretty big. So I did, and I've become pretty good, 17 now, and i've made the regional team two years in a row. I wish I had started younger, but parents never knew about it, as we're all Canadian.

 

[chinwaggler]

Being born Welsh. Enough said lol.
[/b]

surely that means you would become a sheep farmer?

anyway i was forced to play when i was 8 for my school. hated it until i was 12

 

[Sir Speedy]

<div class='quotemain'>
Being born Welsh. Enough said lol.
[/b]

surely that means you would become a sheep farmer?
[/b][/quote]
Who says we can't sheep farm and like rugby? :mellow:

 

[O'Rothlain]

I got involved with rugby like this...
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