After finally getting a train into Edinburgh, we set off on foot to Murrayfield. Along the way, I finally got a picture of...
this high school. It is the one that inspired Hogwarts. That is your fun fact for the day that isn't related to rugby.
We also saw a billboard for the very event that we were attending.
So anyways, we got to the stadium, bought our tickets and were ready to go, when we got distracted by a street vendor selling scarves with team names on them. Since it was chilly, we all bought one. And let me tell you, I am glad that I had that scarf today. It was down right cold at some points during the day. That scarf saved me.
Here's Murrayfield.
Once we got inside, we discovered that not many people were going to be coming for a while. (Which is kind of surprising because 16 different countries played today.) It also turned out that the first game wasn't for about an hour.
I say this because here is the inside of the stadium at this point and it's pretty much empty.
We pretty much were just killing time until the first match. But, you can check out our awesome scarves.
They had some fun tube things.
Finally, the games began. Here are some fact about rugby (after having watched 24 games, I now feel like I have a pretty decent understanding of what is going on...it wasn't pretty at the beginning of the day). So, the goal is to get the ball over the line at the end of the field (think football) except the ball has to actually touch the ground. Then, the person who made the goal has to then kick the ball through the goal posts to get 2 extra points. So, from scoring you get 5 points and then 2 more if you get the kick. There are 2 halves of the game. They are both 7 minutes long and have no time outs. There is just a 2 or 3 minute break between the 2 halves. It's a very fast paced game. (Which is probably why I liked it.) Each game only lasted about 20 minutes. Also, they do some pretty fun stuff that I did in fact get action shots for (I'm really proud of my action shots, so there are quite a few in this post). I tried to capture as many of these moments as possible.
This is called scrum. When the ball is put back into play, the teams lock their arms together and push against each other while trying to kick the ball out from between them. I'll be honest, it looks both really intense and kind of stupid.
They also lift each other up to catch the ball. (I can only imagine how awkward this is to practice. I mean can you imagine these guys being like "So, can we practice lifting me now?")
People also dressed up for this occasion. Some people did cute things to match their country. For example, there were people dressed as crocodiles for Australia and English hunters (who proceeded to chase their friend who was dressed like a fox around the stadium) for England. Then, there were the costumes that made no sense.
Like, pirates.
And Oompa Loompas. (I'm just saying, I don't care what anybody says, these people freaked me out. I don't know what it is, but Oompa Loompas are jus freaky.)
There were also various mascots for Scotland. One was a reindeer (or elk...we couldn't really tell) and the other was a coo.
The coo was way cooler.
So, over the day we watched a lot of games. (For this tournament that we went to, there were 16 teams and they each played 3 games.) I have to say that New Zealand and Fiji were probably the best. Scotland and the US both were pretty bad (the US was definitely the worse of the 2).
Here's part of the New Zealand team. They pretty much were awesome. Especially number 4 (who is the bald bearded man with the funky tape on his knee). He could probably single-handedly have led the team to victory, no other team members needed.
We ended up having pretty good seats. We were under the overhang so when it rained, it didn't rain on us. And the wind wasn't as bad as it could have been. Our only issue (other than the cold) was that we seemed to attract annoying preteens.
Like these kids that went through peoples trash to find paper to make paper planes to throw at people. They also had a horn. It was a bad situation.
After game 16 or 17, it started to get a little less exciting. We really just wanted it to get to the Scotland vs. US game which was the last game of the day of course. But we still had a really good time.
I really just needed to add in this action shot. Again with the awkward lifting.
I would just like to give the Fiji fans credit. They sang the entire time that their team was on the field. It was really cute.
During our wait for the Scotland vs. US game, we saw a really awesome sight, 3 rainbows at once.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get all 3, but I did get the big one. (As a side note, we also saw a rainbow on the bus on the way to the train station today...that makes the rainbow count at 4).
Then, it finally got to the Scotland vs. US game. We went into the game with an open mind of who to cheer for, but the US played so badly (Scotland scored within the first 30 seconds of the game), that we cheered for Scotland. The US just doesn't know rugby. Sorry, but it's true. They throw the ball like a football and that's not how it's done.
There was also a Scottie mascot. There were quit a few mascots for Scotland.
After the games were finished, we headed back to the train station to get our train back to Stirling. On the way we saw 2 more rainbows.
Again, I got the big one, but the other one didn't show up.
Then, on our train back to Stirling, we saw 2 more rainbows. It was an 8 rainbow day. It was pretty cool. It was a really fun day! It was so cool to get to see one of Scotland's biggest sports! Tomorrow we're going to go to church and go to Filling Station for lunch. It should be a good time!
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