European sports are cool...

[Karak567]

I just spent about 7 days in Ireland with a college group. While I was there I watched plenty of European sports on TV (whether it be while in the pubs or in my hotel room recovering from the pubs). I have always been one of those [censored] who disses European sports as "stupid and boring." But the truth was the only European sport I had really been exposed to was soccer (which I still don't like).

This week, however, I watched a lot of rugby (including a live match), hurling (I think that is what it is called?), Aussie rules football and, believe it or not, darts.

All of these sports are pretty freaking cool. Anyone who has not checked them out needs to do so.

The most exciting event was by far the live Rugby match. It was the last match played in the historic Landsdowne Road Stadium in Ireland, between Munster and Leinster. I stood (no seats where I was) packed amongst local and die-hard rugby fans. There were 48,000 people there, a sell-out. I found myself really getting into it, reacting just as emotionally as the crowd, rooting for Leinster. Honestly, why is this sport not more popular in the US?

We also, interestingly, latched onto the World Darts Championship. We watched most of the quarter and semi-final matches. For the finals match, we managed to invade the hotel bar and get them to put it up on the big projection screen. Imagine 50 extremely excited, boorish American students going nuts over a darts match. We all really got into it. We even took empty pizza boxes and made signs that said "180." Of course, we sang and danced to the "dart song" everytime it went to commercial. I was rooting hard for Barneveld :-). The match took nearly 3.5 hours and went into sudden death. Pretty cool stuff.

Hurling seems like field hockey, except hardcore. It was really fun to watch these guys almost get their hands broken on every freaking play.

Austrial Rules Football looks like it's a blast to play. It wasn't on TV too much, which was a shame.

Cricket, of course, was cricket. They had the Ashes on almost the entire time we were there. Once you understand the rules of cricket it is easy to get lost in the excitement of a match. I even got to see the skinny John Daly bowl!

If any of you guys want to see some pics (or videos) from the Rugby match, just let me know.

[sixfour]

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The match took nearly 3.5 hours and went into sudden death. Pretty cool stuff.

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Variance, you only stumbled across the best match in the history of the sport. Next match you see will obv be nowhere near as good.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Darts are hella fun to play. I don't particularly like watching it though. Rugby is popular here, its just called Football (j/k). Rugby is real neat, but it won't ever get big here because of football. Cricket won't either because almost no one plays it here.

Its cool you enjoyed watching all of them though. Sports are sports after all.

[Jack of Arcades]

Rugby is a great sport. EA Sports makes a yearly rugby game which is pretty fun to play for a week.

[kidcolin]

Hurling is sickkkkk.

[srjunkacct]

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Hurling is sickkkkk.

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[LionelHutz00]

Rugby is awesome.

[Topnoevili]

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Hurling is sickkkkk.

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[cbloom]

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Rugby, great game to watch at the stadium because there's near constant action & the crowd goes nuts. Can't wait for the world cup.

[MCS]

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The match took nearly 3.5 hours and went into sudden death. Pretty cool stuff.

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Variance, you only stumbled across the best match in the history of the sport.

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I cannot wait to see this match on TV. Even knowing the outcome, I'm still stoked. Also, I always cheer against <loser> so I was glad to see the final result. Plus I cashed a bet on <winner>.

The matches between those two are like guaranteed classics. Holsten Premier League, UK Open, and now this.