State of Orgin

Outside ANZ (pronounced A-N-Zed) Stadium, home of the 2000 Olympics

In Olympic Park

Supporting the Blues

Pre-game trash talk on the Jumbotron

Intoxicated Aussies belting out the National Anthem

Picking off a pass and taking it 95 meters to the house for a try

Rugby's "extra point"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_State_of_Origin

We spent the past Wednesday at ANZ Stadium in Sydney's Olympic Park taking in State of Origin II. The State of Origin is equivalent to the All-Star Game, only it's a best of three series that takes place over the six week span in the middle of the rugby league season...and who you play for is determined by which state you grew up playing rugby in - either Queensland or New South Wales. Queenslanders think those from New South Wales are arrogant and "soft" (there are no clean words I can print here from what I actually heard), while people from NSW think Queeslanders are ignorant, country-bumpkin rednecks. The atmosphere was electric and entertaining - 85,000 intoxicated Austrailans (with a few random Canadians, Brits and Americans sprinkled in) tend to do that.

The NSW Blues lost to the Queensland Maroons by the score of 24-14, giving Queensland the series 2-0 and making it 4 in a row. The mood of NSW fans reminded us of Texas football fans in 2004-05, before they finally beat OU to get the monkey off their back. And we found out Drew looks like a notable rugby league player by the name of Robbie Farah (so says the drunk Aussies on the train after the game) - the running joke was that when he was pulled with 20 min to go in the game, he must have skipped the showers and was trying to beat the crowd. There's no point in Drew trying to pass himself off as him, b/c the way rugby league players are going, he'll probably be arrested in two weeks for assaulting a woman at a nightclub like this guy...

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/nrl/story/0,27074,25702756-5016552,00.html