Brisbane Global Rugby Tens Tournamet – event review
It’s 36 degrees (that’s 97 degrees of the American persuasion)…in the shade, as we head to Suncorp Stadium (arguably the home of Rugby in Australia) to be part of the spectacle that is the Brisbane Global Rugby Tens.
Rugby…is the winner
Seemingly a bit of a Super Rugby teaser/taster, the Brisbane Global Rugby Tens has now been calling Brisbane home for it’s second year. With teams invited from around the world from a variety of tournaments, all vie to beat each other in the hopes of actually knocking a kiwi team off the top step of the podium (yet to happen BTW). Teams from France, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, various Pacific Nations and Japan have all thrown their hats in the ring, much to the aplomb of their ever expanding fan bases.
What to wear
While each team participating generally unveils a special jersey just for the tournament, the outfits that are most important are those of the audience – outlandish and garrish are always encouraged. Some of this years participants were as follows;
- A bunch of bananas
- A bunch of pineapples
- 8 Wallies (the “where’s” king, not the “Lewis” kind
- A bunch of chiefs….well people wearing indian headdress
- The Crayola crew (1 dressed as a Crayola box while accompanied by a bunch of crayons)
- 300-294 (6 gents dressed as Spartans – “Leonidas, where are we going” one would quote each time they walked to the bar
- Hawaiian shirts galore
- A gent who was accompanied by non costumed friends while wearing a short….very tight dress….while insisting on raising a leg to step over chairs between rows was cheered by many
- Superheros
- Super Saiyans
- Super slutty…..nurses, explorers, teachers, cheerleaders, schoolgirls – you name it, it can be made slutty
The games
With fields slightly smaller than the norm and a large squad allowing ice hockeyesque full team changeups, the games are fast paced and exciting. Suncorp stadium, as usual providing ample viewing opportunities and (in my opinion) ensuring that there are almost no bad seats in the joint, as well have 2 gigantic big screens to view the action if the old eyes are getting a bit blurry with age or alcoholic influence. Each half is only 10 minutes so the games tick through quite quickly, ensuring you get to see some fresh action every half hour
Frozen cocktails
I’m not a massive drinker and when I do, you can pretty much guarantee it is going to be the girliest drink possible (apologies for those tough chicks out there that can swig methylated spirits without pulling faces, but I am talking about yummy drinks). Frozen cocktails were the order of the day (especially in the unrepentant Queensland heat) with many to choose from, I had a passionfruit something-or-other, a fruit tingle, a margerita (which was mexicanly delightful).
After a few frozen bevviews beneath the belt though and watching the best sport in the world, I began to get itchy feet. Not the sort where I needed to take my shoes of and get a pedicure, the sort where I reimagine myself with the oval ball tucked underneath my arm as I run, wind blowing through my hair, deftly maneuvering myself between behemoths of opponents, fending off tackles left, right and centre and breaking ankles with what can only be described as silky smooth sidestepping that even Nehe Milner-Scudder would be envious of….but as I stand to stretch after an afternoon in stadium chairs, I remember that my playing days are many, many, many moons behind me. Best to continue vicariously through the support of my team
The Crusaders
Tarn supports the Chiefs, she has done forever and a day and probably won’t stop although she supports 1/15th of Auckland Blues on any normal game day, purely because she has the downstairs tingles (or as we refer to it in our house, the mingles) for Sonny Bill Williams. I support Crusaders. Have done since day dot (being 1 of 3 Catabrians in a family of Waikato supporters, I’ve just gotten louder over the years). Luckily, we didn’t get to see a Chiefs vs Canterbury this year (if they played, we missed it…..thank goodness, She may have gotten upset at the loss).
But alas, the championship was not theirs this year. Knocked out by the Hurricanes, the mighty Crusaders will now prepare to take on Chiefs for their first game of the Super Rugby competition.
Options for improvement
Ticket prices
Bring the pricing down early. We only decided to go, in all honesty, due to the fact that we received an email stating tickets from $39. The tickets we got were fantastic and if we could get the same tickets for $39 next year, we will definitely be going. Stadium end $39, stadium sides $49, upper tiers $25 – the place would be sold out.
More stars
Ideally, it would be awesome to have more stars for each team turn up to play. I saw a post from Rico Gear saying to Tana Umaga the the Blues should get Carlos back at 10, he’ll slot in at 10 and see if Kees Meeuws and Troy Flavell would be keen to come on board to give away a few yellow cards. That is not a bad idea at all, what about an ex-Allstars team?
Make a bigger deal of the ladies games
The ladies games were awesome. Big hits, massive fends, blistering speed, silky stepping. But it seemed to me as though they were used as a filler to allow the gents to have a rest in between rounds. Allow them a bigger presence and I am sure they will deliver…..more than they already did.
Costume prizes
There was some great participation with the audience (Kiss Cam was hilarious……hilarious and debaucherously wrong in some cases, but really created a great atmosphere), a group of bananas having a dance off with a group of pineapples on the other side of the stadium via bigscreen tv, Darryl Braithwaite’s “Horses” belted out across the stadium while people either pretended to ride horses….or rode each other. Entertaining stuff. But the costumes were so good, that there should have been prizes – potentially even text to vote?
Either way, Brisbane Global Tens is a must do if you are interested in rugby, dressing up or even just having an all round good time.
P.S. The Auckland Blues won 🙁
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