Big Rugby Game- Saturday the 5th

Thomond Park Stadium
Munster team vs Leinster team.

This stadium holds 28,000 people and to watch a rugby game is like no other sport! I love it !!
The game has two 40 minute periods with a 20 minute half time. There are no vendors running up and down the aisles selling things. There is beer that can be bought and brought back to your seats but you don't have the drunkenness.
There is singing of particular songs during the games. Amazing to hear the whole stadium in a chorus.

 We are off to the game. I figured we walked about four miles that night from beginning to end.  Before we left I had boned up on the rules of the game.
I can't begin to teach you since I am still scratching my head but the basic ones are --the Kick off (like us) --the tackle--the ruck (sometimes the ball isn't picked up so the ruck is an orderly struggle for the ball formed in an R--the maul (looks like a M)--the mark--the scrum (this is that funny circle formation)--the touch and lineout (two lines are formed and the ball thrown in but you will see the players throw a player into the air to catch the ball (ballet)! More rules down in the blog.

 This house is ready to support the Munster team!!

 Hot temptations for hotdogs???!!

 Keep on moving.  I didn't tell you that the Irish are the fastest walkers....even the older ones will pass you!
I am learning to walk faster which will please my long-legged family but I will never keep up with the Irish!

 This is the lineout. The blue players is just coming down from being thrown up.

 The cheer leaders that do nothing but run back and forth. They have no cheers. I am not sure what their purpose is.

The scrum formation.  The one thing that I am astonished about is what happens to 28,000 people during a kick ball. The whole stadium goes absolutely "pin drop" quiet.  Even a crying child will stop crying! I will try to put in  below the videos I took of this..

The scoring is a whole other matter.  You get 3 points for the drop-kick. Getting in the ball in the goal (like our touchdown is called scoring a "try" [5 points]. Then you get 2 points "converting the try" for kicking it through the goal posts.
This is only the beginning of the rules.  Good luck.
Oh I forgot, we [Munster] won 19-15...
Cheerio  :-)