What sports teams do you support?

[Heid the Ba]

Away draw for Ross County.

Played 10, won 6, drawn 2, lost 2.

[Мастер]

Wow, Australia must have gotten New Zealand good and mad last week, judging by what's going on right now . . .

[Мастер]

Holy feck. 41-13.

That's one win each, so the current holder of the Bledisloe Cup (New Zealand) retains it.

[Heid the Ba]

I suspect Australia used the game as RWC preparation. Normally they are geared solely to beating NZ but next month they will have to beat one or both of England and Wales just to get out of the group stage. The All Blacks play with at least one true openside flanker, England rarely play with one for example. Looking at the team (I haven't seen any of the game) but it looks like they tried a new backrow combination.

[Heid the Ba]

Away win for Hertha, home loss for County.

Played 12, won 7, drawn 2, lost 3.

[Arneb]

Away loss for Greuther, 2 - 3 against St. Pauli.

Played 13, won, 7, drawn 2, lost 4

[Heid the Ba]

See, it isn't so hard . . . checks arithmetic carefully . . .

Rangers crushed Alloa away.

Played 14, won 8, drawn 2, lost 4.

[Heid the Ba]

More tank biathlon.

[Heid the Ba]

Rangers win two nil away from home in a cup.

Played 15, won 9, drawn 2, lost 4.

[Arneb]

Tepid draw by Hertha against Bremen ("what's green and reeks of fish?") at home, 1 - 1. Still, leading the table for one night.

Played 16, won 9, drawn 3, lost 4.

[Arneb]

And I almost forgot a shaming home defeat by Greuther, 0-2 against FSV Frankfurt, a (fellow?) relegation candidate.

Played 17, won 9, drawn 3, lost 5.

[Heid the Ba]

Ross County trail down to Kilmarnock and hand out a four nil beating.

Played 18, won 10, drawn 3, lost 5.

Rangers play the Leith Soap Dodgers at lunchtime tomorrow.

[Heid the Ba]

Rangers 1 Dirty Scummy Leithers 0

Played 19, won 11, Drawn 3, lost 5.

[Arneb]

I guess we'll at least make it Played 20, won 11, Drawn 3, lost 6 next week, when Auld Auntie Hertha get their beating in Dortmund, Borussia looking down at everyone with 6 pts and an 8 - 0 goal difference....

[Heid the Ba]

Game 20 is Aidrieonians -v- Rangers in the League Cup tonight, which will hopefully put another win up before Hertha get their beating.

[Lianachan]

My first trip to see the glorious Ross County last night, hospitality courtesy of my day job. Very lazy 2-0 win in the league cup against vastly inferior opposition. Never got out of first gear, but never had to. One word match summary: Meh.

[Heid the Ba]

I missed that completely, feel free to update the compound season at any time.

Played 20, won 12, drawn 3, lost 5.

[Lianachan]

I missed that completely, feel free to update the compound season at any time.

Played 20, won 12, drawn 3, lost 5.

This came about while I was away. Fizzy craic?

[Heid the Ba]

A cumulative record of Rangers, Ross County, Hertha and Furth. No real purpose.

Five - nil to Rangers

Played 21, won 13, drawn 3, lost 5.

[Arneb]

Last-second equalizer for Fuerth away at last-placed Duisburg , 2-2

Played 22, won 13, drawn 4, lost 5.

[Lance]

Is there rugby happening now? If I were to all of a sudden decide I wanted to see if rugby interested me, what should I look for?

[Мастер]

Is there rugby happening now? If I were to all of a sudden decide I wanted to see if rugby interested me, what should I look for?

There are two flavours - union (what I normally watch) and league.

They originally split a while back (1895?) over whether players could be paid if they missed a day's work to play in a match. Subsequently, they evolved separately. In union, there are fifteen players per side, and when the ball carrier is tackled, a struggle for possession takes place. In league, there are thirteen players per side, and when the ball carrier is tackled, a new play starts (a bit like American football in that regard, but they don't have the committee meeting before starting again). In union, a "try" (more or less equivalent to a "touchdown" in American football, although that term has a somewhat different meaning in rugby) is five points, then the kick is two points extra. I believe that in league, a try is four points, plus two more for the kick. You can also score points with penalty kicks or drop kicks (both three points in union; I'm not sure about league). Absolutely no forward passes allowed. To score a try, it is not sufficient merely to cross the try line while carrying the ball (the way it works in American football); you need to touch the ball to the ground to score.

Domestic competitions in New Zealand (ITM) and South Africa (Currie Cup) are going on now. Here, they're on an Irish channel, Setanta. I don't know if you get that one.

In league, the NRL (Australian domestic league) and "Super League" (theoretically an all-European league, but all but one of the teams are from the UK) are going on now.

Starting September 18th, the union World Cup will start, with the final match on October 31st. Some warm-up matches are taking place now. This is a competition between twenty national teams, including yours (although it would be a bit of an upset if your country won). There will be 47 matches in total. The first forty will be round robin; the 20 teams are divided into four pools, and each team plays each other team in their pool once. The best two (out of five) teams from each pool will advance to the knock-out stage, which includes a bronze final.

The matches will be primarily in England, although some will be played in Wales, so I would guess that at your location, they'll tend to be on from early morning to early afternoon.

In Asia, the Fox network seems to have the broadcast rights for the World Cup; I'm not sure whether that's the case everywhere.

[Lance]

And the NZ All Blacks are everyone's favorite team?

[Lianachan]

Last-second equalizer for Fuerth away at last-placed Duisburg , 2-2

Played 22, won 13, drawn 4, lost 5.

Home win for Ross County.

Played 23, won 14, drawn 4, lost 5 (if I'm doing this right).

[Arneb]

And the NZ All Blacks are everyone's favorite team?

To the extent that I am interested in rugby (which I am not), yes, they are my team, for at least as long as Scotland don't play at that level.