In 2008 and again in 2010, I was part of an assemblage of rugby-alum degenerates who traveled out to the western part of the country to watch the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens World Series, an eight-city world tour wherein a weekend international rugby tournament is played in each venue. Our old coach Cary spearheaded the drunken outing in San Diego three years ago and took a few pictures; the highlight that trip, perhaps, was learning about the shot "The Stuntman."
Last year, as you may recall, it took a ridiculous journey to get to the same tournament in Las Vegas, but it was all worth it. The US stop is in Vegas again this year – this weekend.
The cool part for us rugby idiots is that it’s on live television this year. NBC is airing matches beginning at 3:30 EST on Saturday and resuming coverage for the Cup Final Sunday at 4:30; their subsidiary Universal Sports, for those who get it, will have even more of the action at various times. The full schedule is here.
Even cooler for those of us who played Tribe Rugby (now known as Wren Wrugby) is that Brian Hightower, who lived, drank, puked, rucked and mauled with several Gheorghers way back when, is providing color commentary for the broadcast. This could be the beginning of a long and distinguished career for him if all goes well – and if rubgy continues its ascension in American popularity. We’ll see; in the meantime, tune in this weekend to catch some of the play.
Highcheese has also been tasked with writing some rugby-related pieces for a webpage called The Scrum on UniversalSports.com. Take a gander and learn a bit more if you're interested.
Oh… in unrelated news, Hightower was also DangerMan (almost).
In recognition of our old friend’s presence at the event that kicks off Saturday, I rang up The Thumb (also known as The Fireplug, The Glom, a Random Idiot, or simply Cheese) and borrowed 20 minutes of his time with a flurry of questions serious and less serious on behalf of Gheorghe: The Blog. Here was the result. (Brian sounds that way because I keep him in a little tin can.)
highcheeseinterview by whitneygtb
Tune in if you can. Sevens rugby is an awesome spectator sport, good for fans and ADHD sufferers alike. (7-minute halves, lots of scoring.) Enjoy.
Friday, February 11, 2011
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Whitney is whining the format is messed up on this post. It looks fine to me. Anyone else having issues?
ReplyDeleteBy format, do you mean 4 audio clips instead of one?
ReplyDeleteMay actually sit down and watch a little 7's this weekend just to hear highcheese.
I fixed the formatting - completely started over with the html code. This better work now.
ReplyDelete82 minutes for Clyde? Toni Basil gets 24 hours and Clyde gets 82 minutes?
ReplyDeleteI spent a good 4 minutes preparing that post. Jeez...
Bitch to Whitney
ReplyDeleteSorry, TR. This was time-sensitive, since I had to get the word out for people to watch the rugby and listen to the Hightower.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoyed the original "All Along the Hightower"...not all the covers work.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Afroman's "Because I Got Hightower."
ReplyDeletei think i get universal sports-- despite not having any cable channels-- is it one of the digital nbc channels? because there was sevens rugby on the other night? i would love to hear that commentary . . .
ReplyDeletei like the easter egg. cool.
ReplyDeleteBlondie - The Tide is Hightower
ReplyDeletehey-- i didn't write in that question about the germans!
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a different Dave from New Jersey who wrote in. You're not the only one, you know!
ReplyDeleteIt was Dave Brown.
ReplyDeleteSo Universal Sports is not on DirecTV or our local cable company. But you can stream it live over your computer. Looks like NBC at 3:30...
ReplyDeleteYOU ARE STREAMING LIVE!
ReplyDeleteRippin and tearin.
ReplyDeleteUniversal Sports is on Fios but not in high def. bullstein.
ReplyDeleteRIPPIN AND TEARIN! RIPPING AND TEARIN!
ReplyDeletethe poor souls that didn't watch that clip from yesterday...
Time sensitive means about 30 hours away? Interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe're only 42 days into 2011 so this may not mean much, but it's the clip of the year to date.
ReplyDeletethe prospect excites me
ReplyDeleterobbie mentioned a gtb summit in orlando...in november...WUWT (what up with that)?
i'm game by the way. just wish i had more lead time to plan.
I believe the November G:TB summit will take place at the "It's a Small World After All" ride in the park.
ReplyDeleteI'm obviously down for that as well. Interested to hear if there's any shot of that happening. I'd be attending the mini-GTB summit at Jazz Fest but I don't think my bosses would be keen on me taking more vacation time so soon after my Vegas trip and my upcoming ten day honeymoon. Pretty shitty of them, I know.
ReplyDeletewho else is going to the orlando mini-summit?
ReplyDeletebesides me qand my mini-kids?
I'm in...
ReplyDeleteDetails?
the dave and i are both taking our families to disney first week of november - total coincidence. as such, any other gtbers that would like to join us at some point would be more than welcome.
ReplyDeletethat would probably make the spouses real, real happy
ReplyDeletei assume we'd grab some adult beverages after the kids were given knockout drops.
ReplyDeleteWhitney has a SoundCloud account? We need to set up a G:TB SoundCloud drop box.
ReplyDeleteAccount activated this AM after GTB's IT guy (IT-J) couldn't provide a means of airing the interview.
ReplyDeletewhit-- did you mean embedding with soundcloud? or something more sophisticated?
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ReplyDeleteOrlando mini-summit. Beers around the World at Epcot is always nice. As for the evening, well, downtown disney will do.
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ReplyDeleteand?
ReplyDeleteNot as big as I expected. Terrific athleticism. Pretty average player. Athleticism makes him a factor though. Nice, quiet guy. He didn't guard me but I crossed him up good one time.
ReplyDeletedamn right you did. g:tb, crossing up nfl wideouts and the general public since 2004.
ReplyDeleteFound this interesting article on Hightower and your trip. I have not seen the Thumb since I believe that 1995 Hong Kong Sevens, which he played in for the Eagles. We should not be surprised that he proved to be the most durable player from our old school.
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