Latvians are well known to be the most enthusiastic ice-hockey fans in the world, and right now they're suffering with their basketball team at the European Basketball Championships in Poland, and they're waiting for tonight's most important football game of the year for the World Cup Qualification... against whom the latter is played? Oh, it's of course against Switzerland.
So I think it's a good time to calm down these nerves and look at a friendly sport that is usually happening far away from the spotlight of attention: Rugby.
I had a chance to see the game of last year's champions EŽI/EK Sistēma against their younger team EŽI/LMT, in a "stadium" in a forest in the suburb of Jugla. The highest (and only) rugby leage in Latvia has exactly four teams.
My old friend Martins (phon: Martinjsch) plays with the older "Hedgehogs" (Eži, phon: Eschi). We know each other from hours of futile hitchhiking attempts somewhere in the Latvian hinterland. He was more successful in New Zealand, where he participated in a Rugby exchange program. Pretty great, I'd say: To practice and play for five months in a country where Rugby is about as important as ice-hockey is in Latvia. Martins told me that even on the schoolyard, girls and boys would play Rugby during the breaks.
This is Kristaps. He performed best in this game, had the most "tries", and could therefore frequently get a "conversion" with a kick to the goal. A try is 5 points, a conversion 2 points. Since Kristaps' old team went bankrupt, he drives twice or thrice a week the 60 km from the city of Jelgava to this Riga suburb for Rugby. Very passionate!
Martins and his Sistēma-Hedgehogs won the game 67:17. My congratulations!
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