#Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017

[aus-wnt]

Caitlin Foord: ‘Men think women’s football is a ‘pussy’ sport’

Despite overtaking the Wallabies to become the third most popular national team in Australia, Matildas star Caitlin Foord says some Australians still see women’s football as a “weaker sport” - but she predicts that’s about to change.

Australians are on the cusp of witnessing one of the country’s most significant sporting tournaments when the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 kicks off this month here and in New Zealand. And the excitement is demonstrably palpable: with more than a million tickets already sold, the event (which takes place from July 20 till August 20) is on track to become the most attended standalone women’s sporting event in history.

For Matildas star forward Caitlin Foord, this World Cup will mark her fourth; in 2011, she became the youngest Australian ever to play in the tournament. ​​And to think her record-breaking career may never have happened. “Rugby league was what my family supported and I wanted to play rugby league when I was younger,” Foord tells Stellar. “But my nan told Mum that if she let me play then she would never speak to her again. So that went out the window. But if there were more girls playing at the time, and [if] it was more normal for girls to play, then I don’t even know if I would have gone into football.”

Like many children, Foord’s introduction to soccer began when she was a sporty nine-year-old playing with the boys during lunch at her school in the Illawarra region of NSW. “I was tearing the boys up a little bit, and they asked me to join the local team with one other girl,” Foord recalls. “Mum was hesitant because I was already doing a lot of other sports like Oztag [a non-tackling version of rugby league], and surf lifesaving. But then I got a little bit of help from my sister, who told Mum, ‘She’s really good, she beats all the boys at school.’”

In her first match, she scored six goals, and from there, she never stopped playing. “Before I started, the game wasn’t as professional as it is now, but I probably wasn’t thinking about that,” Foord admits, adding that since she wasn’t much of a student at school, she was all too happy to find herself playing for Sydney FC as a 16-year-old in 2010.

But as her abilities developed, so did the opportunities for women in the sport. Foord moved to the US to join New Jersey side Sky Blue FC in the inaugural National Women’s Soccer League season in 2013. She then signed with Vegalta Sendai in Japan in 2017. Now she calls London home, after renewing her contract with powerhouse Arsenal FC, where she’s played since 2020. “My transition in the game came at the same time that the game was growing,” she says. “It kind of just fell into place for me as I went up the ranks.”

Parallel to Foord’s personal career, the women’s game itself has made huge inroads. In 2019, Football Federation Australia signed a four-year-agreement with the player’s union, Professional Footballers Australia, that would see the men and women’s national teams receive equal shares of national team generated revenues. And, thanks to the likes of high-profile teammates such as Foord and captain Sam Kerr – arguably the greatest Australian football player – the Matildas have this year overtaken the Wallabies and are close to overtaking the Kangaroos to become the third most popular national team, according to independent market research firm Futures Sport & Entertainment.

Foord says the bond within the Matildas is a special one. “We’ve all grown up together,” she explains. “We’re a close-knit team. We’re not just teammates, we’re all friends, as well. We all thought that was the normal thing. But being overseas and playing with girls from different nationalities, I’ve heard people say they hate going into the national team. I find that so hard to believe because we love being around each other and I think that’s unique.”

Foord enters the World Cup with not just this camaraderie, but also a considerable home-field advantage and a golden opportunity to raise the profile of women’s soccer in the country. “Football is the world game, yet I’ve had a couple of conversations with people around home and they still don’t really see the women’s game,” Foord tells Stellar. “When we play overseas, it’s on at 3am.”

Which is why this upcoming World Cup is so pivotal. “Australians love sport, so I feel like they just need to see us and that’s enough,” she continues. “That’s all we need. That’s going to be the turning point, especially for the males who have spoken down on the sport before or think of women’s football as a weaker sport or a ‘pussy’ sport. But once they watch us and see how tough the game is and how we all get stuck, that’s all it needs.”

Following the team’s fourth-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Matildas are expected to go deep in the Women’s World Cup. This year’s tournament offers the field a record $165 million in prize money, more than three times the amount from the 2019 Women’s World Cup (though far less, still, than the almost $700 million offered to the men at the 2022 World Cup).

Even so, if the Matildas take out the title, Foord says she will celebrate by purchasing some jewellery.

“As an athlete, I’m used to wearing tracksuits and comfy clothes and the odd dress for an awards night,” she says. “But the older I’ve got, the more I’m into fashion.

“I didn’t grow up with money or anything like that, so when I see something, I don’t buy it straight away. If I’m constantly thinking about it afterwards, then I know I really want it – and I’ve always wanted a Cartier ring. If we went on to win the tournament, I’d buy the one I absolutely love, which has diamonds in it.”

But no matter what happens, Foord plans to keep on kicking on. “All the benefits that come with the game now, me and the girls were part of [building] that,” she says. “We’re obviously grateful for what we have now, but we know it still deserves more – and we need to keep pushing.”

[paddockpr]

Hello! Do you have any resources or anything for someone looking to get into sports PR?

Hey anon! Absolutely I do :) For the sake of simplicity, I chose articles and videos that are easy to access , and I chose ones on topics that form the foundations of sports PR. There is a blend of articles, academic materials, and opinion pieces that should give you both the foundational knowledge of sports PR and a feel for some of the more debated and/or controversial aspects of sports PR. \

This one takes the more classical understanding of PR and recontextualizes it into sports, so you get a good sense of what PR normally does, and how it is then taken and applied into the sporting context: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50207137_Sport_Public_Relations_and_Communication

This one is good for understanding why sports PR is a political and socioeconomic function, and the ways in which it has become entrenched in the lives of athletes , their teams and the ecosystem of sports themselves: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/humaff-2015-0008/html

I know that sports announcers and commentators hold a lot of interest amongst motorsports fans so this one is useful in understanding the role that they play and why it is that what they say matters to fans, athletes, teams etc (uses rugby as an example in case anyone was watching the rugby world cup this year): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0363811108000283

I recommend the international journal of sports communication in general, but this particular one touches on parasocial relationships and PR: https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsc/13/3/article-p586.xml

This is about motorsports and sponsorship linked marketing: https://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/41/1/17.short

This video is a good starting point when thinking about celebrities that are not athletes getting involved in sports as well as the investment (or lack thereof) in women's sports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5bafHWooWk&list=PLqq4LnWs3olWn4XTLrTVLpy_vYCepYk7A&index=12

This video is an interview about sports and soft power. A big part of sports PR is understanding some of the underlying factors of politics and diplomacy that go into sporting events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjH971v1ZSQ

This is about sports, PR and promotion: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0363811106001007

This uses East Asian countries as a case study for PR, media and sports nationalism: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244015604691

This is about internet media and sports pr: https://www.kheljournal.com/archives/2017/vol4issue3/PartE/4-3-82-716.pdf

If there is anything specific you would like more sources on, let me know! And of course feel free to ask me questions about the sources I gave.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.22 (after 1920)

1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China. 1927 – Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes. 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel. 1941 – During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah. 1942 – Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies. 1943 – Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern. 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece. 1957 – South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities. 1958 – The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths are estimated at 300, mostly Tamils. 1960 – The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson launches his Great Society program. 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. 1967 – L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire in Belgian history. 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores. 1969 – Apollo 10's Lunar Module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the Moon's surface. 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka. 1972 – Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Féin following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave. 1987 – Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India. 1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen. 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations. 1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. 1996 – The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting. 1998 – A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton. 2000 – In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna. 2002 – Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. 2010 – Air India Express Flight 812, a Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737 until the crash of Lion Air Flight 610. 2010 – Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2–0 in the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League). 2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history. 2012 – Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m). 2014 – An explosion occurs in Ürümqi, capital of China's far-western Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries. 2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to utilise a public referendum to legalise gay marriage. 2017 – Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.

[artfuldodger75]

AAMI PARK MELBOURNE

Until 2010, Olympic Park Stadium was Melbourne's main venue for football, rugby league and rugby union; not purpose-built, it was an athletics stadium with the rectangular grass field set inside the running track, and it could hold 18,500 spectators, but only 11,000 seated. It had been the home ground of the Melbourne Storm since they entered the National Rugby League in 1998. The A-League Men's Melbourne Victory FC also used Olympic Park Stadium from 2005 to 2007 when they switched permanently to Docklands Stadium.

On 6 April 2006 the Victorian Government announced that a $190 million 20,000-seat rectangular stadium would be built on the site of Edwin Flack Field and would be home to NRL team Melbourne Storm and A-League Men team Melbourne Victory. The stadium's planned capacity was increased to 30,000, with foundations capable of expansion to a capacity of 50,000 if needed. The stadium began construction in late 2007.

- Wikipedia

Notable events:

- Rugby League (NRL, Internationals)

- Football (A-League, internationals, 2017 Asian Championships, 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup)

- Rugby Union (Super Rugby, NRC, Internationals)

[dailyrugbytoday]

Los Pumas-All Blacks Rugby kick off their Test season in 2023 Rugby Championship

New Post has been published on https://thedailyrugby.com/los-pumas-all-blacks-rugby-rugby-championship/

The Daily Rugby

https://thedailyrugby.com/los-pumas-all-blacks-rugby-rugby-championship/

Los Pumas-All Blacks Rugby kick off their Test season in 2023 Rugby Championship

The All Blacks kick off their Test season in 2023 with a trip to Mendoza to take on Argentina in the Rugby Championship.

New Zealand confirmed their fixtures on Tuesday as Ian Foster’s men play four fixtures before the Rugby World Cup in France later this year.

With Eden Park unavailable due to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the All Blacks will face rivals the Springboks in MT Smart Stadium in Auckland.

Following the massive Springboks Test, the All Blacks will be looking to continue their dominance in the Bledisloe Cup with a Test Melbourne before the return fixture in Dunedin – their last home clash before the World Cup.

Read More:- Indigenous vs Māori All Blacks 2023

NZ Rugby 2023 Test schedule

Rugby Championship July 8: All Blacks v Argentina, Mendoza July 15: All Blacks v South Africa, Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland July 29: All Blacks v Australia, Melbourne August 5: All Blacks v Australia, Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin

Test match August 25: All Blacks v South Africa, Twickenham, London

The final Test before the global showpiece will see New Zealand and the Springboks uniquely face off at Twickenham.

Foster expects a difficult year but is excited to get going in a World Cup year.

“The Rugby Championship is an exciting but tough draw,” Foster said in a statement.

“Playing the Argentinians in Argentina is an exciting challenge after not being there since 2019. With the challenges of stadium availability in Australasia, we are delighted to play this huge South African Test at Mt Smart. We believe it’s key for the connection with our fans to have this massive game in our backyard and can’t wait.

“The Dunedin Test is also equally important for us because it’s our last chance to play in front of our fans before we head off for an exciting Rugby World Cup.”

NZR announces All Blacks home Tests in Auckland and Dunedin.

The All Blacks will play two Tests on home turf this year against South Africa in Auckland and Australia in Dunedin.

The Lipovitan-D Rugby Championship 2023 schedule will see the All Blacks play South Africa at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland on Saturday 15 July. The Bledisloe Cup returns to Dunedin for the first time since 2017, in a rare afternoon home Test match (2.35PM kick off) for the All Blacks at Forsyth Barr Stadium on 5 August.

All Blacks Head Coach Ian Foster said:

“The Rugby Championship is an exciting but tough draw.”

“Playing the Argentinians in Argentina is an exciting challenge after not being there since 2019. With the challenges of stadium availability in Australasia, we are delighted to play this huge South African Test at Mt Smart. We believe it’s key for the connection with our fans to have this massive game in our backyard and can’t wait.

“The Dunedin Test is also equally important for us because it’s our last chance to play in front of our fans before we head off for an exciting Rugby World Cup.”

The two home Tests will be part of a 2023 schedule which will see the All Blacks play five Tests in the buildup to the Rugby World Cup in France in September.

The All Blacks Test matches will be broadcast exclusive to Sky, live and on demand. Pre-sale and public sale tickets to the All Blacks Test Matches will go on sale in early May, with exact dates to be confirmed. The Black Ferns schedule will also be announced in due course.

All Blacks 2023 Bledisloe Cup Test Schedule

 All Blacks vs Australia, 29 July, location and time TBC (Bledisloe Cup match one)

Bledisloe Cup (match two) All Blacks vs Australia, Saturday 5 August, 2.35PM, Forsyth Barr Stadium, DUNEDIN

Test Match All Blacks vs South Africa, Friday 25 August, 7.30PM, Twickenham Stadium, LONDON

About the Bledisloe Cup

Lord Bledisloe, Governor General of New Zealand from 1930 to 1935, bequeathed a trophy to the New Zealand Rugby Union with his name on it for perpetual competition between the All Blacks and Wallabies. The two countries have been playing for the Bledisloe Cup since 1931 and it is the symbol of trans-Tasman supremacy in rugby union.

The All Blacks are current holders of the Bledisloe Cup.

See Also.

Highlanders vs Crusaders Super Rugby 2023

[rollingmaul]

Women’s Rugby World Cup: Ireland 19 - 17 Australia

#COYGIG!!!! 

[noinhibitor]

I mean, I'm not surprised but the coverage of the Women's Rugby World Cup is pathetic. This is not how you get causal (and young) viewers invested when its on at the middle of the day and shoved onto ITV4 if your lucky, and the rest are somewhere online but good luck finding it, let alone re watching them or watching them later when your home from work/uni

[yeerbuddy]

Every time the rugby World Cup comes on, I make sure I do nothing with my life but watch every game.

[lesjustbeme]

I know I'm Welsh and should be backing Wales up... and I am... just Portia woodman is a babe and New Zealand are just amazing!!! 😩 goals in life - to go to New Zealand and watch the women play rugby

[canadachronicles]

My Women Crush this Wednesday is the whole Canada Women’s National Rugby Team who brilliantly entered the World Cup, not only winning both their games against Honk Hong (98-0) and Wales (15-0), but also not having a single try scored against them! It will be tougher tomorrow, against New Zealand -the Black Ferns won their game against Honk Hong (121-0); but it certainly promises to be an exciting game! Go Canucks!!

[rugbyuniontaklessinkingin]

Il Mondiale delle Azzurre

Continuiamo l'Intervista a Ladies Rugby Club parlando del Mondiale alle porte.

Continuiamo l’Intervista a Lorenzo Cirri di Ladies Rugby Club. Nella prima parte avevamo parlato del rugby femminile italiano, ma è l’ora di spostare il focus sulla manifestazione sportiva che inizia fra pochi giorni a Dublino. – Parliamo subito del grande evento imminente: il mondiale di rugby in Irlanda. Come ci arrivano le varie…

[cypher2]

There’s a lot of history on display at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, but no player represents more of that history — the heroics and the heartbreak, the progress and the barriers — than Formiga, Brazil’s 41-year-old midfielder. This is her seventh World Cup — which, as one might guess, is a record for men and women.

She is a living, breathing symbol of how far women’s football has come in the last four decades, and how far it has left to go. Because when Formiga was born in 1978, it was illegal for women to play football in Brazil.

In 1941, the National Sports Council in Brazil drafted Article 54, a decree which said that women in the country “will not be allowed to practice sports incompatible with the conditions of their nature,” such as football, boxing, rugby, polo, water polo, and multiple track and field events. These events were slated to be too “violent” for women, and there was excessive concern by the white men in charge that the sport would interfere with a woman’s sexuality and femininity.

“Football became so important, infused with national identity and ideas about virility, masculinity, modernity, Brazilian race politics, that it wasn’t surprising that in 1941, the Brazilian government banned it for 40 years,” Dr. Brenda Elsey, associate professor of history at Hofstra University and co-author of Futbulera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America, told ThinkProgress.

Women and girls continued to play football during this time — a testament, of course, to the power of the sport and the tenacity of women in Brazil — but they had to do it in the shadows. Sissi, a Brazilian football legend, famously learned to play the sport by kicking doll heads, since she didn’t have access to soccer balls.

But the ban remained in effect until 1981, when Formiga was three years old.

“If you think about progress that way, if you think about — okay, Formiga was born and literally, it was illegal for Brazilian women to play football. She’s playing on a national team that didn’t exist when she was born, and not only did it not exist, it was against the law — if you think about it that way, it’s amazing,” said Elsey.

Formiga was 17 years old when she played for the Brazilian team in the 1995 Women’s World Cup in Sweden. She was 18 years old when women’s soccer debuted at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. There has literally never been a women’s soccer tournament in the Olympics that didn’t include Formiga. She thought about retiring before this World Cup, but decided to stay when she realized the team needed her — it still has not cultivated enough talent to replace her.

“I was frustrated,” Formiga told the New York Times. “I had fought so hard for recognition for women’s soccer, and I wanted conditions to get better for us women players, and it hadn’t happened.”

Unfortunately, women’s football in Brazil remains rife with sexism and bigotry that have stifled its growth — the men in charge of the sport in the country seem much more concerned with making sure the women look feminine and remain calm and composed than in investing in their success in the sport.

“Now the women are getting more beautiful, putting on make-up. They go in the field in an elegant manner,” Marco Aurelio Cunha, the head of co-ordination for women’s football in Brazil, said in 2015. “Women’s football used to copy men’s football. Even the jersey model, it was more masculine. We used to dress the girls as boys. So the team lacked a spirit of elegance, femininity. Now the shorts are a bit shorter, the hair styles are more done up. It’s not a woman dressed as a man.”

In 2017, a few prominent Brazilian players — including Formiga — wrote a letter to the Confederation of Brazilian Football (CBF) protesting the CBF’s decision to fire the women’s national team’s first female coach, Emily Lima, after just 12 matches, and reinstate the team’s former head coach, Oswaldo Fumeiro Alvarez, more commonly known as Vadão.

The letter didn’t do much good. Vadão is still the team’s head coach, and in May, he told reporters that women were particularly emotional and hard to calm down in the locker room, and that might be why they were struggling in the lead-up to the World Cup.

These sexist ideals fuel inequality. As Elsey wrote in SBNation this month, men’s professional soccer players in Brazil can earn as much as $125,000 a month, while women only earn about $500 a month.

Of course, none of this sexism is exclusive to Brazil — in fact, it isn’t even the only nation that has banned women from playing football. In 1921, the Football Association — the governing body of football in England — banned women’s football because it was “quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.” Primarily, it took this step because it was threatened by the popularity of the women’s game, which had soared during World War I. The ban was officially in place until 1971. Germany, meanwhile, banned women from playing football in 1955, and didn’t lift that ban until 1970. And many women are excluded from the sport due to racist and religious discrimination, as well. In Iran, women are still not allowed to even attend men’s football matches, since they are banned from sports stadiums. FIFA just lifted its hijab ban for women’s footballers in 2014, while France still has its hijab ban in place. There is a long way to go until true equality is reached.

Formiga is expected to be a starter on Sunday when Brazil faces the hometown French team in the Round of 16. France is the favorite, which means there’s a significant possibility that this will be Formiga’s final World Cup appearance. But, no matter the outcome, or how many more years the still fit and healthy legend has in professional football, one thing is certain: She’ll never stop fighting for progress.

“There are more teams in the women’s league, more championships and more women who want to play,” Formiga said. “But the structures are too small. Girls need more chances, more training.”

Lindsay Gibbs | ThinkProgress

When we speak of equality in women’s football, it goes much deeper than just the money. Equality to female athletes will always mean more. It has to. And when you hear people argue that women’s football hasn’t progressed or isn’t at the same level as the men’s game as a reason why they shouldn’t receive equal treatment, it’s important to remember the history of this sport. Female footballers have literally had to fight to get where they are today. They have been banned and held back in every way, for 40 and 50 years, even today they are held back, dismissed, and treated as inferior. And yet they have still conquered the field they have been placed on, in all it’s ugliness and beauty. It’s not a matter of the women’s game catching up, it’s a matter of the world catching up to them. Female athletes are not inferior and never have been. They’ve shown us what it looks like to become elite and break barriers and break records all while having to fight for their very existence with a foot on their neck. And all the while the common message we hear emanate from these elite athletes, who are titans, legends of the game, is how the next generation and the next after them can survive and keep growing. Because they know what it feels like to have nothing, to come from nothing, and to have to go back home to nothing. This sport will always be made better because the women’s game has that much more meaning, and we should all understand and respect that. 

[zodiacal-dust-and-curls]

Sports HCs - BoRhap Boys

A/N: I just suffered a disappointing af loss at a sporting event today. Come talk to me about it if you want. Otherwise, enjoy what I think the boys are like while watching sports.

Disclaimer: these are taken from the fictional versions of the boys in my head. 

Warnings: cursing and mention of adult activities. The author also has a very limited knowledge of rugby and soccer, but a lot of history with basketball and baseball. If I messed up majorly, let me know!

Rami

Really only watches basketball

He stays reserved while watching in public

Cameras are everywhere anytime you go out

Watching at home is a different story

He is loud and passionate

He calls fouls before the refs do. It's like a super power or something.

There's finally a game that you're dying to watch.

Your alma mater has made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in over 30 years.

He offers to take you in person, but work has you too tied up to get there.

So you watch from home, which is dangerous.

You are loud the whole game.

Rami is in shock.

You, his normally reserved and polite SO has lost their mind over a college basketball game.

Of course, he cheers with you. Spotting all the fouls as usual and being more upset than you are at the blatant favoritism against your team.

2 players fouled out. Two.

“This is such bullshit. I can't believe - are you BLIND, MAN? HOW WAS THAT A FOUL?”

Your team ended up losing by 4 points thanks to some dumb ass call in the last two minutes of play.

But Rami getting your mind off the game after was almost worth the loss.

 Ben

Ben watches football.

Sometimes you call it soccer to drive him crazy.

He is invested in every match you watch for the entire match

It's almost like a religious experience

He goes back and forth between intense concentration and yelling

The concentration comes during the long runs where there's no scoring or even a hope of scoring

The yelling happens when his teams GK misses a save or a stupid foul is called

It happens a lot, but it never lasts long

You don't really love football like he does

But you watch it with him no matter what

The trade off was watching house hunters with you no matter what

When the World Cup comes around, your flat becomes football central, luckily it's only once every four years

He's only ever seen you get into one game

The women's Olympic finals in 2016

It blew his mind to watch you get so absorbed.

You had been cheering for Sweden. You had no idea why, he had no idea why, but here you were.

He spent a lot of the game filling in the details you didn't know and helping you yell at the refs.

You took the loss strangely hard for someone that was indifferent hours before the match started.

Ben made sure to put all your leftover energy to good use.

Gwilym

Gwilym watches rugby

You both cheer for Wales, but occasionally, you cheer for the other team to get a rise out of him.

It works. Every time.

There's nothing about the sport that's boring.

You actually love watching with him

You haven't learned all the rules, but he doesn't mind explaining.

This is not a sport that you have to maintain composure while watching, so neither of you does.

At home, you worry that someone may mistake your cheering for death screeches

But no one has called the cops on you yet.

They may have called the complex management, but that was easy enough trouble to get out of.

The last game you watched, in person no less, is definitely your favorite to date.

You and Gwilym may have had too much fun

You definitely yelled until you both went hoarse

Wales defeated Ireland won the Grand Slam

After running the streets for a bit after the match, you felt like you still had fire burning through your veins

Gwilym made sure to put it out ;)

Joe

Joe watches a lot of sports, but your favorite is baseball.

He is a Yankees fan.

So much that you're positive that you wouldn't be together if your team happened to be the Red Sox

They're not. But neither are the Yankees.

Watching games at home can be intense.

You've made a pact that you can't actively cheer against the other's team unless your teams are playing each other

Which happens a lot because they're in the same league

So anytime you have the ability, you go out to the games

The last game that your teams played against each other with any real consequences was postseason of 2017

You weren't sure your relationship would make it out of that postseason, honestly.

You're both passionate people and words were said about players on either team.

So you made a wager, a bench bet if you will, about the outcome of the series.

You won, just like your team did.

Joe was a little sour over it. The loss didn't leave the best taste in his mouth.

But the photos of him during the Fall Classic are treasures to you and he is not allowed near them. Ever.

Your team actually ended up winning the World Series that year. That may have pissed Joe off a bit.

But you took advantage of that energy and the high running through your own veins to have the time of your life with the love of your life.

Tag List: @rogers-wristbands @deakydeckme @gwilym-may

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.22

192 – Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu. 760 – Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt. 1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo. 1200 – King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet. 1246 – Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV. 1254 – Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty. 1370 – Brussels massacre: Hundreds of Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, for allegedly desecrating consecrated Host. 1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe. 1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England. 1520 – The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish. 1629 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War. 1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg. 1762 – Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome. 1766 – A large earthquake causes heavy damage and loss of life in Istanbul and the Marmara region. 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri. 1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason. 1809 – On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is repelled by an enemy army for the first time. 1816 – A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs, and the riots spread to Ely the next day. 1819 – SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. 1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage. 1840 – The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished. 1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique. 1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent. 1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made regarding Southerners and slavery. 1863 – American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson which lasts 48 days, the longest siege in U.S. military history. 1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends in failure. 1866 – Oliver Winchester founded the Winchester Repeating Arms 1872 – Reconstruction Era: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers. 1900 – The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative. 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine". 1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century. 1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246. 1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China. 1927 – Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes. 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel. 1941 – During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah. 1942 – Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies. 1943 – Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern. 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece. 1948 – Finnish President J. K. Paasikivi released Yrjö Leino from his duties as interior minister in 1948 after the Finnish parliament had adopted a motion of censure of Leino with connection to his illegal handing over of nineteen people to the Soviet Union in 1945. 1957 – South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities. 1958 – The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths is estimated at 300, mostly Tamils. 1960 – The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. 1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes in Unionville, Missouri after bombs explode on board, killing 45. 1963 – Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis is shot in an assassination attempt, and dies five days later. 1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson launches the Great Society. 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. 1967 – L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire in Belgian history. 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores. 1969 – Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface. 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations. 1972 – Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Féin following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave. 1987 – Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India. 1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen. 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations. 1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. 1996 – The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting. 1998 – A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton. 2000 – In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna. 2002 – Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. 2010 – Air India Express Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737 until the crash of Lion Air Flight 610. 2010 – Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2–0 in the Uefa Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League). 2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history. 2012 – Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m). 2014 – General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes interim leader of Thailand in a military coup d'état, following six months of political turmoil. 2014 – An explosion occurs in Ürümqi, capital of China's far-western Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries. 2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum. 2017 – Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. 2017 – United States President Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall. 2020 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashes in Model Colony near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 98 people.

[yourdailyqueer]

Lindsay Peat

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 5 November 1980  

Ethnicity: Irish

Occupation: Women’s Rugby, Women’s basketball and Womens Gaelic Football player, teacher

Note: Played for Ireland at the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup,  captained the Ireland women's national basketball team

[dailyrugbytoday]

Six Nations: Wales Rugby Warren Gatland coach replacing Wayne Pivac

New Post has been published on https://thedailyrugby.com/wales-rugby-warren-gatland-coach-replacing-pivac/

The Daily Rugby

https://thedailyrugby.com/wales-rugby-warren-gatland-coach-replacing-pivac/

Six Nations: Wales Rugby Warren Gatland coach replacing Wayne Pivac

Wales head coach Warren Gatland says the Welsh Rugby Union’s 60-cap rule needs to be looked at amid uncertainty over the future of players’ contracts.

Wales do not select players with fewer than 60 caps who play outdoor the united states, but that is beneath assessment. When asked whether the modern rule needs to be changed, Gatland replied: “I suppose it is a PRB (Professional Rugby Board) choice.

Gatland brought: “When you look at the cease of this year, there are 3 gamers who may not be available to us for the World Cup below the modern policies. We want to be pragmatic and it’d be disappointing if some gamers pass over out on the World Cup.

Warren Gatland has returned to coach Wales, replacing Wayne Pivac in December 2022

Claims were made by an ex-Wales women’s manager and a former chairwoman of the Welsh Rugby Union’s professional board

Why shoot ourselves inside the foot if we do not want to? There has been so much turmoil in phrases of getting the settlement sorted between the union and the regions. I think it would be a fine step moving forwards.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and four regions are negotiating a brand new monetary settlement for professional rugby in Wales. This is performed via the PRB, which runs the expert game in Wales.

No agreement has been signed, with players out of settlement on the give up of the season, therefore they are not able to formally commit to new deals. Between 70 and ninety nearby players are believed to be out of settlement at the quit of the season.

More News :: ‘Ticking timebomb’ equality warning to rugby bosses

Wales Rugby Warren Gatland

Warren David Gatland CBE (born 17 September 1963) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player who is currently in his second spell as the head coach of the Wales national team.

As head coach of Wales from 2007 to 2019, he won four Six Nations titles, including three Grand Slams, and reached the semi-finals of the 2011 and 2019 Rugby World Cups. Gatland was also head coach of the British & Irish Lions on three tours, to Australia in 2013, when they won the Test series 2–1; New Zealand in 2017, when the series was drawn; and South Africa in 2021, losing the series 2–1.

He has previously coached Connacht, Ireland, London Wasps, where he won three Premierships and the Heineken Cup, and Waikato, with whom he won the Air New Zealand Cup. He has also coached Chiefs between 2020 and 2022 before returning to Wales in December 2022.

As a player, he played as a hooker and was one of Waikato’s longest-serving players, playing 140 games for the province – a record at the time.

Ken Owens says he is looking forward to a new challenge in captaining Wales

The 60-cap rule is intertwined with that manner and any choice on it may affect the careers of Will Rowlands and Japan-based totally Cory Hill and Jake Ball, with the trio all falling underneath the 60 global caps threshold.

Rowlands will go away Dragons on the quit of the season to sign up for Racing ninety two and might presently be ineligible for the World Cup in France, which starts offevolved in September.

Gatland concedes “there is a possibility” more players could go away Wales due to the settlement scenario.

“I cannot blame gamers for exploring the options because there’s a sure stage of uncertainty in Welsh rugby for the time being, mainly for folks that are out of contract,” he introduced.

“They need to consider their own non-public situation and that is flawlessly understandable from my point of view.

“I’d like to make certain we hold our pinnacle gamers in Wales. I don’t know if we want to look at the 60-cap rule due to the fact in the meanwhile is it healthy for cause with this a good deal uncertainty in the game in Wales?

“We want to maintain in angle it’s nonetheless January at the moment. If you move lower back some of years those contracts did not was mentioned until March.

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