Balmain Tigers vs. Manly Sea Eagles

Yesterday Mark and his dad took me to my first Rugby League game. Not to be confused with Rugby Union, and yes there are actually two different types of Rugby in Australia, I am sure this strikes you as odd as it did me, there are only 20 million people in Australia, how can they possibly have more than one type of Rugby? Simple answer virtually every Aussies love sports! On a Friday night at the Ferguson house hold, it’s a constant jumping of channels on the TV between Rugby Leauge, Rugby Union, Aussie Rules Football and Cricket!

The stadium was packed with 20,000 fans, the game was great, both teams kept the action going and I am actually starting to understand the rules! Seating was on a hill, in the grass, the spectators were highly entertaining, I would speculate that almost 85% of the crowd had on jerseys or other gear supporting their team. In typical Aussie fashion, songs were song, lots of beer was drunk, the sun was out and all had a great time! Mark’s dad used to play for the Tigers, his last season was 1963. He reminisced with us about what the field and the grounds used to look like and helped me confirm that now that I am officially a Ferguson, Balmain is my team! (Oh yeah the Tigers won 24-18)