FORT WORTH, TX – An old rugby teammate of mine, Big C out of Pittsburgh, used to play Defensive Tackle for the Mountaineers of West Virginny back in his college days. At the end of their games they would sing the fight song and then shout out “ruck em’ ruck em, that’s our custom.”
Cept’ they didn’t use the word “ruck.”
Anyways and anyhows, it brought to mind two big ol’ events coming up this weekend on Saturday… the All Blacks ruckin’ it up in Chi-town for an international rugby match against the USA Eagles, while at the same time the TCU Horny Toads take on the West Virginia Mountaineers in beautiful Morgantown, West Virginia.
Praise the Lord and pass the taters.
First things first.
Seems that the All Blacks have already arrived in Chicago and, as such, are checking out the tourist sites, including attending a Chicago Black Hawks hockey game. Apparently, the local press in New Zealand is shocked… shocked… that the team is walking around town pretty much completely unnoticed by the local schmoes.
Because, as we all know they are the… Best. Rugby. Team. In. The. World. Period. Our lack of recognition of them has elicited the usual comments in the New Zealand press about us parochial Americans… ya know, self-centered idiots only concerned with our own sports – and who couldn’t find Auckland on a map.
All of this made me chuckle because I seriously doubt that your average Kiwi would be able to identify any of our baseball or hockey stars if they were walking the streets of Christchurch, or could find West Virginia for that matter… and the only reason they would be able to realize that an NFL or NBA player was in their fair city would be the sheer size of the dude.
Ah… but the whole world like to bash us Yanks. And they’ll get a chance to do it at Soldier Field on Saturday, where the Doc will be in attendance, along with Short Matt & Johnathan Wicklow Barberie of RugbyWrapUp.com… Prediction; All Blacks 82, USA 27.
That also happens to be the score of the last TCU game, where the Doc saw the Horny Toads hang 82 on the hated Red Raiders of Texas Tech. Tech’s fans are the Neanderthal slime-balls of the Big 12, kinda on the same level as the lovable followers of the Jets and Eagles. So smokin’ them like salmon was a sublime experience.
The Froggies are ranked #7 and have a real shot at playing for the National Championship if they run the table. Last time they won one was back in 1938, before I-Phones were invented and when some guy with a funny mustache was being appeased by peace-niks by giving him the Crimea…uh, I mean Czechoslovakia. (Sorry, mixed up my dictator appeasements). At any rate, a long, long time ago.
Standing in their way are the Mountaineers, who are ranked 20th. The local fire departments are on alert, since Mountaineer fans have a tradition of getting totally trashed after big wins and then setting couches on fire in the streets.
Geez…whoda thunk they’d do weird ass stuff like that in West, by God, Virginia, where the family tree is crabgrass and I’m my own grandpa.
The Doc will be listening in while watching the blacks, and predicts the local furniture stores will have to wait until another day for a fortuitous fire sale… Frogs 41 Inbred Rednecks 27.
Some other predictions for top college games this week are:
Upset special..#25 Louisville Cardinals 31, #2 Florida State Thugs 27
#4 Mississippi 9, #3 Auburn 7 in an SEC slugfest
Unranked smarty pants Stanford 24, weirdo uniform # 5 Oregon Ducks 22 in another upset
#17 Utah’s massive Islander D pummels #14 Arizona State 24 to 3.
#12 Arizona 40, #22 overrated UCLA 20
And Navy gives the #10 Fighting Irish a tussle….but go down with the ship 24 to 17
And here’s some heartland tunes to keep ya hummin’ – with Corb Lund and Hays Carl unique solution to immigatin’ and border crossin’ and such…
Come back tomorrow Walter “Grinding Ax” Hynes… hopefully.
