Rugby is BACK! Disappointment. Pride. Hotness.

RUGBY IS BACK FOR 2013!

See.  The fact excites me so much I felt the need to center, capslock, bold, italicise, underline and exclamation point it!

Rugby is officially back for the 2013 season, and suddenly it feels as if all is well with the world again.  For the most part.

... just you keep on being sexy, Zac...

Everyone knows of my love for Mr Zac Guildford, so obviously I need to mention the fact he isn't playing in the Super XV this year... well, not right now.  And this my friends, forms disappointment #1.

His battle with alcohol is something that has been highly publicised, and at the end of the day, only he knows the extent of the problem, and I hope that this time around he is given the support he needs to work through whatever he needs to, and come out the other side... put on his jet shoes & get back on the rugby field!  I hate all the publicity his latest 'incident' has been given by the media, because by all accounts it was a minor 'incident' - but the media blew it well out of proportion.  Thank goodness he had an awesome girlfriend who is willing to speak out & stand up for her (sexy) man, along with some great friends who have done the same.

Seeing how much the media can fuck someone over, makes me almost ashamed that I want to BE a journalist...

I buy tickets to see CJ playing...
NEK MINNIT....

Disappointment #2 comes in the shape of one Mr Cory Jane.  Who sustained a season ending knee injury, just two days after I had purchased tickets to FINALLY see the man playing live.  If you remember, last year I was unable to see him playing live because he was injured.  I am officially a jinx on CJ.  Whenever I am going to be seeing him playing in person, he gets injured.  Last year it was the ankle, and now the knee - I could look on the positive side & say 'at least I can see TJ Perenara playing', but last time I was going to see HIM playing, he too got injured.  If TJ makes it onto the field, I will be a happy girl - if TJ DOESN'T make it on the field (due to injury), then I am never going to go to another Hurricanes rugby game... EVER.  It's for their own good.  On a positive note (for him), I guess - is the fact that he's going to be able to spend lots of time with the 4th little Jane, whom I believe is due on March 13th.

Okay, as far as disappointment goes, I think that is it.  Ironic that the two disappointments relate to Zac and CJ, really...

Go laddy!

Pride.  You need look no further than one Mr Sean Maitland.  In 2012 it was announced he had been let go by the NZRU and that he was heading over to Scotland, having signed with the Glasgow Warriors.  There was an element of 'oh my god, you traitor!!!', but we soon got over that, and began to follow his blossoming European rugby career.  Needless to say, when he was announced in the Scotland squad for the Six Nations, we were very proud of the ex-Crusader/Canterbury player!  In a dream debut, he went on to score a try in his first game for his adopted country, and then set up a try the following weekend, vs Italy.  BECAUSE of Mr Maitland playing for Scotland, we have begun following the Six Nations competition, and are looking very forward to being able to watch the next game, which is at the not-so-convenient-time of 3am next Monday morning!  Okay, so we MAY record it so we can watch it at a more awake-friendly time of the day, but you never know...  Perhaps a 3am wake up (followed by a 7.15am alarm...) will be all worth it, to watch our favourite European team, and favourite Kiwi-in-Scotland playing!  Besides, they are playing IRELAND.  Ireland have the best (rugby) National Anthem in the world.

In a move we felt was needed, Lauriel and I got Sky last week.  In September we are going to NEED digital TV anyway, so it kind of WAS needed in a way... but it was also NEEEEEDED so we could watch rugby on TV, and not have to put up with just having one game a week to watch on free-TV.  Hence on Friday night when the Rebels vs Force game kicked off, we both breathed an enormous sigh of relief.  The Super XV was officially underway, and we could watch it AS IT HAPPENED, and not have to rely on the delayed-coverage-of-one-game on Prime, and watching highlights on YouTube.  

David Pocock...
Sometimes one just can't deny the hotness factor

Neither of us are fans of Australian teams, nor of any Australian players (except David Pocock.  For some reason we like him), but rugby is rugby & beggars can't be choosers... but what we soon realised is that like most other rugby teams, the Australian teams have the occasional hotty playing for them!  Our 'observation' (this sounds more classy than 'perving') began and as could be predicted, we soon found players that made us hit 'live pause' so we could take a better look and say "Oooo!  Who is that?"  "Number 14!"  "I'll google him!".  That process was repeated four times - three times for the Rebels and once for the Force.  By the end of the game we had four names to add to our list of rugby hotness (I kid you not, it exists) - Hugh Pyle, Mitch Inman, Lachlan Mitchell and my personal favourite, Patrick Dellit.  The following night when the Brumbies played the Reds, our search wasn't as successful, with us only adding one name to our list - that of Pat McCabe.  So when you add in David Pocock, that is 6 Aussie players on our list... something that is hard to accept (being die hard All Blacks fans!), but it seems it is hard to ignore eye candy, even when it could potentially be dressed in Green & Gold, playing against the Men in Black, come Rugby Championship time.

I now leave you with my personal highlight from the first week of the 2013 SuperXV competition...

Welcome to the list of hotness, Mr Patrick Dellit!

!!! you sneaky photo, how did you end up on here????