Murderball

On Saturday, my youngest sister, Margee, and I went to the finals of the World Wheelchair Rugby Championships being held in Christchurch. It was the USA versus New Zealand. I don't think there's another sport in which New Zealand will battle the USA for the championship of the world. There might be a few rowing events. The US won 29 to 26, of course. Wheelchair rugby was the subject of the movie Murderball, and we saw the USA star player who was featured in the documentary and on the poster on the IMDB site.

We wanted to dress up and be rowdy Americans. I don't have any red, white, and blue clothes. I belted the national anthem and we joined in with the almost continuous USA chants. I think that the USA supporters were louder than the NZ supporters. Westpac arena was small but it was almost full. Many wore black. I snagged a water bottle that was tossed into the crowd at halftime.

The game closest to wheelchair rugby is canoe polo. I use one sport you don't know to describe another sport you don't know. It's the perfect analogy. They can pass the ball forward, ram each other, and are confined to a vehicle that you must sit in. Wheelchairs move like kayaks too. Team USA missed only one pass the entire game. The Wheel Blacks only three. My kayak polo team could learn something from them. The Wheel Blacks had two strong players and the US used more subs. Players are given a disability rating between 0.5 and 3.5 with 0.5 being the most disabled, and the four on the floor can have a most a total rating of 8. You get one point for a touchdown.