Look at that smile of that young man. What do you see? Glory? Excitement? Triumph? Jubilation? …
He is the captain of the national team of the national sport. He has enjoyed the support of the entire nation and fought through the international tournament hosted by the entire nation of his for the last seven weeks. And, only a few days ago, won the final and the ultimate international prize of his national sport.
Yet, what I see in that smile of his is not sheer happiness, but more relief and satisfaction. The relief of knowing he and his team carried through the burdens and satisfaction of knowing his team has finally got the job done. It has not been an easy journey for him, or his team. His team has retained the top ranking in the world for past years, supposed to be the best in the business. Yes it took him 8 years, three attempts, until he finally succeeded to win the Cup.
Even before his time, the Cup was supposed have been won much earlier and more times. This country was supposed to have the best team in the World. Yet the Cup was only won once twenty four years ago, and no more. Why? The nation questioned, demanded, despaired, and become depressed. Every time the Cup hopes were dashed, there were people getting drunk, getting hurt, and hurting others.
Then, just 9 month ago, the major city in this young man's own backyard was struck by a strong earthquake, that generated one of the most violent shaking in the recorded history and killed 181 people. Many houses, historical buildings and city's crucial infrastructures, including his provincial team's home stadium, were heavily damaged. Those tragedies and losses must have been on his shoulders all the time he was out on the field leading his team.
Three days ago, his journey was finally over. The job was done. The Cup was won. I saw his team's victory on TV with my friend and her family. I saw the jubilation of his and his team. I was so happy for him, for his team and for the whole nation that the victory was finally here.
Those are the thoughts I've had from seeing that smile of his, whenever I look at this picture of his holding the Cup, which I took myself when I attended the Victory Parade. It was good to be there. I will remember it for a long time.
Above photograph of the New Zealand All Blacks Captain Richie McCaw holding the Webb Ellis Rugby World Cup Trophy was taken by me in Lambton Quay, Wellington, during the 2011 Rugby World Cup Wellington Victory Parade
He is now officially part of history and can at least have a commentators job right up to retirement :yes:
You know, I wasn't a great fan of him before. I was a die-hard Wellington supporter and the cantabs were the foes. I was critical of him letting the media and some parties attack him by labelling him, and the ABs as a whole, "cheats". But after the Cup win, and his leadership pulling the team through so many difficulties, I'm happy to say he has won me over. I'm now a proud new fan of the Captain Fantastic. 😀
Lets hope its not another 24 years until the next one
You can't argue with good results :yes:
:no: Don't say that! 😥
The best! :yes:
Well, it was last time :eyes:
When I arrived at NZ 21+ years ago, I thought I would see the Cup lifted again in a year or so. When it did not happen, I thought, well, it'd happen next time. I NEVER thought I'd have to wait 20 years!! I, like everyone else in NZ, want to see it repeated ever!
Too often might get boring 😀
I'd accept every 12 years. :p
That seems fair, worth the wait but not too long :yes:
Oh I know those feelings. We Finns have also gone through all the possible levels of desperation and made those questions when trying to achieve ice hockey World Championships for the second time. And then we finally did :happy:And yet it must have been even more hard times for you because rugby must mean in New Zealand the same as foot ball (soccer) means in England and ice hockey in Canada.So, I'm happy the Cup went to right address :hat:
Originally posted by darkesthour:
Yeah. If we won that easily, the Cup would become cheap. 😀 Originally posted by serola:
:cheers: :hat:Rugby here is a way of life, as far as I can tell as a non-native kiwi. A religion. Kiwi rugby fans aren't satisfied with just winning. We demand a good game of rugby all the time and want the best team to win.I was at a friend place with her relatives, in the night of the final. When the ABs finally won the one of their most unflattering (badly played) matches, my friend and her adult relatives all said, 'We didn't deserve to win. The French played a way better game than we did. They should have won.' I doubt if the English soccer fan or Canadian ice hockey fan would say the same in a similar situation.
Its not the team, its the rugby that counts 😀
Originally posted by darkesthour:
:yes:
Its a genetic thing here 😆
Homo sapiens rugbensis
Originally posted by darkesthour:
:yes: Love that! You should copyright that, though, in case someone decides to steal it and print on T-shirt or something. :p
Yeah. It gets in your DNA. The totally Darwin defying stuff. :p
The final stage in human evolution 😆
Originally posted by darkesthour:
Absolutely hilarious Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
Really can't say the same on anything we Finns have :awww:
May the best team win. ;)I think it's a bit taoistic, in a way. The way to the excellence, the process of how the game played, is more important than immediate reward of having your team win.
complimenti!
Thanks, antonio. 🙂
Congratulations and much joy with the next games!
Thanks, Angelika. The rugby season's over for the year and the players can take well earned rest.Unfortunately for Richie, he'll have to undergo a surgery to repair his foot injury. But at least that will save him from the foot pain that gave him so much trouble this year. :)PSLove the smilie. Can I legitimately use it? 😀
Originally posted by serola:
Sauna!
Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
I took it out of the internet. :yes: http://www.rugbyrefs.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies&langid=7
Originally posted by 7Wellis:
Thanks. :happy:I think it'll be better for them for me not hot-linking to their resource. I'll commit smilie-napping later when I've some down time. 😀 (Bit busy right now. Got a fairly big translation order, about 15000 words in about 10 days.)Originally posted by derWandersmann:
😆
Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
Isn't it correct what I have done? Have I made a mistake by linking this smilie? :nervous:
Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:
Oh :eyes: I often quote wikipedia
Just once should be fine, Angelika. I, on the other hand, could be using this from time to time. So it would probably be polite not to hot link. Hot linking means added traffic their server. Some site, including My Opera forbids hotlinking to outside page.
Originally posted by 7Wellis:
That is perfectly fine. Do not worry.Looks like I'm confusing you, Angelika. Sorry.When you upload a picture or smilie to your My Opera site, it is stored in their server at *.opera.com address. Lets say you have another blog somewhere else. And you want to use the same picture there. If you use img src HTML tag to show the one you have on opera.com server in your second blog, it is called hot-linking.If the image you have hot-linked is large and you have lots of visitors to your second blog outside my.opera.com, it will create extra traffic to opera server. And Opera does not gain anything from the increased server demand. Only the second blog benefits. According to the Wikipedia article, there are several other reasons hot-linking is a bad practice.But again, the little smilie gif probably won't make any difference in terms of server demand. 🙂
Thank you very much for the detailled answer. There are so many pitfalls in the web. Good to know a profi like you. :happy:
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
😀 "Sauna here is a way of life. A religion. Sauna fans aren't satisfied with just bathing. We demand a hot sauna all the time and want everyone enjoy it."
Originally posted by serola: