Supporting England

We watched the Rugby World Cup in the hotel bar. It wasn't the most authentic surroundings, but there weren't any "old man pubs" nearby, and the bar had the advantage of having only a small crowd around the TV, so Jonathan could explain some of the rules to us. (It would have been largely incomprehensible otherwise.)

We were quite disappointed that we couldn't find any team colors for sale; we would happily have waved a St. George's flag! But Jon tells us that Birmingham is not much of a rugby town (though from what we could tell, the Brummies certainly didn't let that stop them from using the World Cup as an excuse to go out drinking).

Sadly, England lost to the Springboks of South Africa. But it was a close match at least, and England wasn't even expected to make it to the final, so people tried to look on the bright side.

For people used to American football, it's a bit amazing to see all these guys just jumping on each other with essentially no padding. It's impressive that there aren't more injuries than there are, although many of the players do have cauliflower ears.

The other funny thing is that the anthem for English rugby is Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. (Yes, the spiritual.) So the crowds would just burst into song at various points during the match. (They even have a whole set of hand gestures to go with it.) And, apparently the adopted theme song for this particular team was "The Gambler", by Kenny Rogers. (I kid you not.) I guess the colonies have influenced the motherland after all.