RugbyRugbyRugby

I went to the six nations rugby match yesterday and let me tell you it was by far one of the most amazing experiences I have had here so far. Italy was playing France. Now since you probably do not know much about rugby Italia is pretty awful... they almost never win. The six nations is made up of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, and Wales. The teams play each play each other once annually. Its a really big deal here and we were able to get cheap tickets through John Cabot, which was awesome! We headed to the game and passed multiple vendors selling these crazy hats and scarfs and all sorts of awesome paraphernalia. As we got closer to the stadium the crazier the fans got. There was so much spirit! Everyone was genuinely excited for the game. There were actually A LOT of french fans there too and they were dressed up. Most of them were sporting barets with the french team logo on it. They were adorable! It was so different from the States. Everyone was dancing and signing and getting all pumped to watch the match, there were little old men getting all excited. We climbed up to our nosebleed seats in the bleachers where we settled in to watch the game. Italy was down the entire 1st half (there are 2 forty min. halves) but the crowd was still cheering them on. During every scrum the stadium would chant italia italia and during every kick there was dead silence to allow the guy to concentrate. It was so cool to have the whole place in sync. Everyone and I mean everyone would get REALLY into the wave and stop there feet and then go nuts when it came around. It was so much fun. Anyways back to the game. Italy can back hard in the second half and although France was passing beautifully Italy played really good defense and ended up winning by one point. This is the first time in almost a century that italy has beaten france, so it was a huge deal. Lets just say, the crowd went nuts. The best part is that after the game the french were congratulating us and drinking beer with the italy fans. It was an awesome time and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to go. I wish that sporting events in the US were more like this and I hope that some of you have the chance to go to a sporting even abroad, because it really is an entirely different experience.

  

France's mascot is a rooster so they all had rooster hats!