The only news that matters today: France beat New Zealand in the rugby world cup. Yes!!!!! After a typically slow start in the tornament, Les Bleus are picking up irrepressible steam. We're playing England—another surprise winner (over Australia) today—in the next round and I'm confident we will overcome.
Oh, there's a rugby world cup going on? No wonder you don't know about it if you rely on American outlets for your sports news: None of them talks about the event. I suppose the provincial shenanigans of baseball or, even worse, college basketball are satisfying when you live blissfully sheltered from international competition.
Anyway, back to today's momentous win. One of the Kiwis' famous weapons in rugby is the haka, a Maori dance involving stomping and shouting that the national team performs right before a game starts. (A variant introduced a couple of years ago controversially included a throat-slitting movement.) Usually the opposing team looks on from a safe distance, but today the French got very very close to the All-Blacks, and even wore special red, white and blue shirts. A great moment captured here.
Notice the hirsute French player looking half-psychotic? That bearded mountain has become quite the star in France, and his name is Sébastien "the caveman" Chabal. There's quite a few tributes on YouTube and DailyMotion but my favorite is "Chabal Bazooka," a pastiche of a pastiche since it's based on a song by parodic band Fatal Bazooka (which I actually posted a few months ago).
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3 comments:
Hey Elisabeth - what can I say? Bad luck - better luck next time - it's only another 4 years. You'll win it one day. Maybe you should just concentrate on the football - Euro 2008? If you get through....
Seriously it was a great tournament in France - bon chance with the footie!
Bec
I assume you're referring to the fact that England beat France in the semi today. What can I say...We gave it away, 'cause England sure didn't win it! Sad, sad. At least we triumphed in football against, ahem, the Feroe Islands!
Well - it was an odd sort of weekend for us - a win in football, cricket and rugby...rest assured, normal service will be resumed shortly...(hopefully after England beat Russia, Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 championship, and, jeesh..England beat South Africa.) Can we do a triple two weeks in a row?? C'mon...this is England. The plucky losers. The underdogs. The 'we don't like a winner mentality' - it's too strong. Something's gotta give - and soon. Look forward to our usual 'we gave it our best shot...' story coming soon to a back page near you.
As to giving it away - well, you're right..we hardly turned up. It's weird, this 'winning' lark!
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