My experience
For the past couple of days I have been participating in the Dubai rugby 7s tournament.
Before we get into the tournament we get a sheet of paper of all the other matches that go on in the tournament, and in the international gulf games there were three Iranian teams participating, Tehran rugby, Tabriz Rugby and Shiraz rugby. I was totally amazed about this fact that Iranians are playing rugby. For once the twilight of my dream that in Iran rugby happens was coming real.
So as soon as I got to the venue Wednesday morning, I look around for hairy people with unibrows (Iranians) and Iran written on their jerseys HAHA.
I couldn't find them and anyways went to play my first game and scored a nice try in the first half and my name went on the scoreboard. Weirdly enough after couple of minutes I saw an Iranian flag raised and these Iranian guys were calling my name and cheering for me HAHAHAHA, it was such a great feeling, I didn't even know them....they were such nice people. They just saw an Iranian name on the scoreboard and they started to raise their country's flag
yayyy hahah . They later on told me that they were really happy to meet someone who is Iranian in that tournament, and so we started talking
Acknowledging them
So I started to ask questions about how rugby goes in Iran, and how everything is set up and we talked for a while, some of the interesting facts was that There is a federation in Iran for rugby, there is a league but it is all supported by the players, and they cannot get any money from anywhere else. Interestingly enough the Tehran rugby team (three times champions of the Iran league in the past 3 years) has a "donation box" that at the end of each practice each player donates couple of dollars which is ALOT for these guys to help and keep the team there.
Rugby is a very hard game to understand with all its rules, and the only way they could understand the games is watching other teams play on TAPES. No federation actually supports them and brings coaches or trains them sadly. Another interesting fact was that one rugby player had a "parche forooshi"(garment/textile seller) the other had a "khayati"(tailoring). So they made their own jerseys haha. NO sponsors my friend, nothing at all. The IRIB TV doest even show their games or even mention them, so that doesn't advertise the game through Iran....which makes it harder for these guys to show themselves.
<P><P>On the other hand, countries as poor as Fiji (Fiji went to the finals and lost to England). Portray the sport on TV so that they can make money out of it, I don't understand why irib doesn't. The guys were telling me that, other governments try to help as much as possible, even if they don't have money they don't discourage them. Whilst our famous Iranian leaders always discourage these guys, give them a baseball ground in azadi complex to train in, and show them no respect unfortunately.
These boys litterly bombarded me with complains about the Iranians in charge of sports. I felt really bad for them, but I really admired their spirit, their Iranian spirit of being together with no stress and WINNING ALL THREE GAMES OF THIER GROUP, but unfortunately in the semifinals they came across a famous Australian 7s team "the Nasa Aussies" and lost against them by one try.
I think we should really appreciate these Iranian sportsmen, and their courage and spirit of living up to their dreams. Ignoring their financial problems and playing together as a team. Absolutely everyone there was astonished by their play. They were the surprise of the tournament. My South African coach loved how they played. He said it shows they have studied games from the TV hahaha.
The difference between these guys and ipl players is that, even they don't have absolutely anything; they still play and don't complain about it. They study the game from pre recorded matches for gods sake, the only reason they were complaining to me about it is because I asked them to tell me about their problems, and they unleashed hell.
I am no writer or editor, but I felt the necessity to write about these guys . I hope these guys had a good time
my team and i
the iranian team and i
</P>
tehran rugby getting ready for a game
For the past couple of days I have been participating in the Dubai rugby 7s tournament.
Before we get into the tournament we get a sheet of paper of all the other matches that go on in the tournament, and in the international gulf games there were three Iranian teams participating, Tehran rugby, Tabriz Rugby and Shiraz rugby. I was totally amazed about this fact that Iranians are playing rugby. For once the twilight of my dream that in Iran rugby happens was coming real.
So as soon as I got to the venue Wednesday morning, I look around for hairy people with unibrows (Iranians) and Iran written on their jerseys HAHA.
I couldn't find them and anyways went to play my first game and scored a nice try in the first half and my name went on the scoreboard. Weirdly enough after couple of minutes I saw an Iranian flag raised and these Iranian guys were calling my name and cheering for me HAHAHAHA, it was such a great feeling, I didn't even know them....they were such nice people. They just saw an Iranian name on the scoreboard and they started to raise their country's flag
yayyy hahah . They later on told me that they were really happy to meet someone who is Iranian in that tournament, and so we started talkingAcknowledging them
So I started to ask questions about how rugby goes in Iran, and how everything is set up and we talked for a while, some of the interesting facts was that There is a federation in Iran for rugby, there is a league but it is all supported by the players, and they cannot get any money from anywhere else. Interestingly enough the Tehran rugby team (three times champions of the Iran league in the past 3 years) has a "donation box" that at the end of each practice each player donates couple of dollars which is ALOT for these guys to help and keep the team there.
Rugby is a very hard game to understand with all its rules, and the only way they could understand the games is watching other teams play on TAPES. No federation actually supports them and brings coaches or trains them sadly. Another interesting fact was that one rugby player had a "parche forooshi"(garment/textile seller) the other had a "khayati"(tailoring). So they made their own jerseys haha. NO sponsors my friend, nothing at all. The IRIB TV doest even show their games or even mention them, so that doesn't advertise the game through Iran....which makes it harder for these guys to show themselves.
<P><P>On the other hand, countries as poor as Fiji (Fiji went to the finals and lost to England). Portray the sport on TV so that they can make money out of it, I don't understand why irib doesn't. The guys were telling me that, other governments try to help as much as possible, even if they don't have money they don't discourage them. Whilst our famous Iranian leaders always discourage these guys, give them a baseball ground in azadi complex to train in, and show them no respect unfortunately.
These boys litterly bombarded me with complains about the Iranians in charge of sports. I felt really bad for them, but I really admired their spirit, their Iranian spirit of being together with no stress and WINNING ALL THREE GAMES OF THIER GROUP, but unfortunately in the semifinals they came across a famous Australian 7s team "the Nasa Aussies" and lost against them by one try.
I think we should really appreciate these Iranian sportsmen, and their courage and spirit of living up to their dreams. Ignoring their financial problems and playing together as a team. Absolutely everyone there was astonished by their play. They were the surprise of the tournament. My South African coach loved how they played. He said it shows they have studied games from the TV hahaha.
The difference between these guys and ipl players is that, even they don't have absolutely anything; they still play and don't complain about it. They study the game from pre recorded matches for gods sake, the only reason they were complaining to me about it is because I asked them to tell me about their problems, and they unleashed hell.
I am no writer or editor, but I felt the necessity to write about these guys
. I hope these guys had a good timemy team and i
the iranian team and i
</P>tehran rugby getting ready for a game
Comment