As we go to print, we have reached the Semi-Finals of the Rugby World Cup 2015. This sporting event is claimed to be the third-largest televised event in terms of global audience after the FIFA World Cup Football and the Olympics, so it is definitely something on much of the world’s consciousness these days. Heading into the culmination of the competition, the SOUTH HEMISPHERE countries appear to be dominating, with all four semi-finalists hailing from the South. The four teams left in the tournament are Argentina, Australia, South Africa and of course the mighty All Blacks from New Zealand. Of the four, three of the teams have already won the World
Cup twice. But it is not so much who will win but what the spirit of the event can do for the nations in the running to win. There is special magic to the energy of the Rugby World Cup. It brings an amazing crescendo of harmony and unity to players and fans alike, and those of you who have watched the amazing 2009 movie INVICTUS starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon would have appreciated how Nelson Mandela skillfully used the South African Springboks Rugby run in the 1995 World Cup to build national unity. This he did by harnessing the harmony-building energy of
the World Cup of that year. If you have not seen the movie, do so, because it is movie-making at its best, and you can actually experience the build-up of fabulously auspicious energy… and forever become a rugby fan!
A
s opposed to Football, described as a “gentleman’s game played by thugs”, Rugby is commonly
referred to as a “thug’s game played by gentlemen”. For the uninitiated watching the game, it is a mess of burly, grown men wrestling one another violently to the ground. It seems that whenever someone gets the ball, everyone jumps on him, and the teams that have dominated world rugby have star players who are big, strong and brawny enough to fend off all challengers. It is that kind of game, rough, tough and tumble! The Rugby World Cup is played
once every four years, and the past seven World Cups have seen six of them won by a Southern hemisphere country. New Zealand, Australia and South Africa have each won twice. The only Northern
www.fswmag.com NOVEMBER 2015 | FENGSHUIWORLD 21
hemisphere country to win in the past was England, who are hosts of this year’s event, but who were knocked out earlier in the competition. In the semi-finals this time, we have the WALLABIES from
The All Blacks performing the haka.
AUSTRALIA (two times past winners) fighting Argentina (who has never won before); and we have the ALL BLACKS from NEW ZEALAND challenging the SPRINGBOKS of SOUTH AFRICA. Sports media have stopped predicting who will win. Instead, they are betting who can come close to the All Blacks who are in spectacular form, bringing a thumping defeat of France in the quarter finals, by a margin of 62-13, scoring nine tries in the biggest ever World Cup quarter-final victory. Poor France wanted to win so badly, but the Kiwis were simply too strong! Does Rugby have special affinity
with the Southern countries? What is it that makes this half of the world so good at this game? After all, wasn’t Rugby invented in England, at Rugby School when a young boy, William Webb Ellis, inadvertently picked up a football and ran with it? How did the Southerners edge so far, far ahead in a game invented by a private school in England? My Rugby-following cousin
Patrick says the Southern teams have always carried some kind of special mystique. He grew up inNew Zealand playing rugby, and is a huge supporter of the All Blacks, considered national heroes in their home country. Before each match, the All Blacks stage something akin to a war dance meant to intimidate the opposing team. This is the Haka, a fierce Maori dance that features wagging tongues, bulging eyes and a war-like countenance the magic!
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