Rome must fall.

Chapter 380 Rugby Final

Of course, there were foreign guests in the stands: the allies of the Nix tribe - the great chief of the Ardei tribe, Aristakas, the elders Cleobrotus, Ambracinus, Budokaribas, Cicelytesses, Chalsipompus, and several pirate leaders such as Agatacus who were granted permission to participate in the ceremony; the chief of the Noriki Ironcore tribe, Sphiri, who had friendly relations with the Nix tribe, and the druid Podamouchi, and several leaders of the Yapod tribe.

In addition, there were several special guests - several Pannonian leaders from Lake Gomi, including Adatis, the son of Iberus.

Although the guests all stood up and greeted each other, it was hard to say whether they did so out of friendship, under pressure, or just to be perfunctory.

However, Maximus always had a smile on his face, and he patiently responded to everyone's greetings one by one, and sometimes even exchanged a few words of greeting, so he moved forward very slowly.

Since Nessia was away for the time being, the two children who were following Maximus and being led by Geniandafla were free from restraint and urged impatiently, "Dad, can you please hurry up!"

Akonis hurried forward, bent down, and gestured to the two children to keep quiet with a serious face.

What's more, the two children immediately quieted down, because in the main house, besides Nessia, only Akonis could keep them under control.

"Let me take care of the children." Akonis said to Gnian Dafla with some dissatisfaction.

But this was exactly what Geniandafla wanted, and she quickly agreed.

Maximus finally reached the small platform at the top of the stands and sat down in front of the large wooden chair in the center. He immediately called out to the etiquette instructor, Kephisophon, who was already waiting there: "Don't keep the people waiting for too long. Let's get started."

"Yes." Kephisophon quickly informed the band in front of the stands.

The ten trumpeters in the band blew their trumpets with all their might.

"Woo!!!..." The loud and long trumpet sounded throughout the entire stadium.

The west gate of Ophidili West Fortress not far away suddenly opened wide, and carriages rushed out one after another, driving along the avenue all the way to a specially reserved pedestrian passage outside the stadium.

Then, the players of the two teams participating in the rugby final from Snowtia and Todlido, as well as the coaches and assistants of the two teams, the referee and medical staff of this game... all got off the carriages. When they gathered together, there were more than 150 people. This is one of the results of the development and gradual improvement of the Summer Festival rugby game.

The sea of ​​people stirred up waves again. Most of the spectators outside the stadium stood up, stretched their necks, and looked towards the pedestrian walkway. At the same time, they waved their arms and shouted loudly, excitedly expressing their support for a certain team and their love for a certain player. The whole area outside the stadium gradually began to boil.

However, although the audience was excited, they all stood still, because this was one of the important laws formulated by the tribe regarding the summer festival. Once anyone violated it, he would be punished for blasphemy. Not only would he be banned from watching the game in the future, but he would also be unable to worship at the temple. He would also be looked down upon by other tribesmen, which would be more painful than killing him. Therefore, no matter how excited the audience was, they dared not violate this ban.

The players from both teams ignored the cheers from the audience and walked with their heads held high to their own area at the edge of the court, led by their respective coaches.

"I'll give you some time to prepare." After speaking to both teams, the referee took a few of his men to check the field.

The head coach of the Snowtia team is Torrerugo. Although he likes to play rugby very much, he is a gladiator and is too big, not fast enough, and not flexible enough. He is totally unqualified to be a Snowtia player and participate in such a major competition. However, Snowtia is the source of soldiers for the Second Legion, and all the players are soldiers from the legion. As the legion commander, he can easily intimidate these tough players and make them obey his orders, so it is natural for him to be the head coach.

At this moment, he called all the players together and gave them a serious speech: "Boys, since the summer festival rugby match was held, our Snowtia team has won the championship for three consecutive years. The people of Snowtia hope that you can create more glory and bring the bronze statue of Goddess Danu back to Snowtia to bring greater luck to the village! I believe you can do it, because you are the strongest, right?!"

"Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!!!!!..." The players shouted excitedly in unison.

Tolergo's eyes swept across the players around him and finally stopped on one of them: "Govas, you are the captain, do you want to say anything to your teammates?" "Yes!" Govas responded in a deep voice.

At this time, he is no longer the ignorant newcomer who had just joined the tribe and was just a spectator on the sidelines. He was the player with the most points in last year's summer game. In this year's semi-final, he prevented the Sirinos player from scoring a touchdown at the critical moment and secured the victory. He is the backbone of the Snowtia team and the source of confidence in winning.

His tall and strong body exudes strong self-confidence, and his sharp and compelling eyes are firm and calm. When he looks around at his teammates, there are his most intimate fellow Scotschi and his most hated enemies Pannoni, but at this moment he gives them the same emotion, because they are all strong arms he can trust and rely on in the game.

"Brothers, our opponent in today's final is not Westney, but Todlido. We must not be blinded by their poor record in the past few years. Think carefully about the performance of the Sirinos team in the semi-finals. Don't underestimate Todlido today. We must go all out!

If you encounter difficulties in the game, don't panic, always stick to the tactics we have been training, and we will win in the end, because our Snotia team is invincible! "Govas waved his arms vigorously and shouted the last sentence, which caused his teammates to shout in unison again.

On the Todlido team side, head coach Aulus was also motivating his players: "...Yes, the Snowtia team has won the championship for three consecutive years and has never lost in the Summer Festival rugby game, but this is not terrible, because no army can be undefeated forever, and no team will not suffer defeat.

Since Snowtia will lose one day, why can't we, Todlido, be the first winner! Think about it, before this year's competition started, no one would have thought that we would stand on the Iyenosi Stadium, and even many people thought that we would be eliminated in the first round, but now you are standing here!

It is because you have the faith to never give up and fight with all your strength all the time that we have won one victory after another! We don’t have players as capable as Govis and Theresa in the Snowtia team, but as long as you can keep running, grabbing and fighting desperately, you can drag down our opponents, disrupt their formation, and gain a chance to win in the chaos! ..."

As a legion commander with rich war experience and relatively old, Aulus has always been steady in his work. But today, in order to inspire the morale of his team members, he rarely showed his passionate side.

In order to win the final, he even humbly sought advice from his former deputy, now the head of the Fifth Legion and the head coach of the Sirinos team, Pecot. This guy who is good at coming up with unexpected tactics played a game of hard fighting, grabbing and disrupting the game. In the semi-finals, he almost beat the Snowtia team with this tactic.

“Come on, brothers!” Aulus stretched out his right hand and said excitedly: “Our team is a whole, and everyone is indispensable. As long as you all try your best, you can win and bring the goddess Danu home!”

The players rushed to put their hands on Aulus' right hand. They roared in unison, with flames burning in their hearts.

The Todlido team is a little different from other teams. One third of the Pannoni players are from other Pannoni tribes and were captured in the last war. At this moment, they are no different from other teammates, shouting excitedly that they want to bring victory back to Todlido.

The referee called the captains of the two teams to guess the coin and choose the side.

The referee was holding a special copper coin with the head of the goddess Danu on the front and the head of Chief Maximus on the back.

The Nix tribe has no plans to issue coins for the time being, but the hot pressing technology for making coins is not complicated and has long been popular in Mediterranean city-states. After some research led by Sistos and the blacksmiths, they soon applied this technology to the tribe, such as the round dragon emblem that displayed official rank.

In fact, there is no need for the Knicks tribe to make such a copper coin specifically for a football game, and the process of guessing the coin and choosing the side can be completely omitted.

But Maximus insisted on this, and he had his own careful considerations:
First, the more complicated and elaborate the procedures of a football game are, the more solemn and formal it appears, thus attracting more tribesmen to participate and making it a unique culture of the Knicks tribe;
Secondly, it can better highlight the sacredness of the game. Through such small means, the tribesmen can continuously deepen their faith in the goddess Danu and their awe of the fact that Chief Maximus is the descendant of the goddess Danu.
Then, as the Knicks tribe grew and football games became more popular, the tribe could make a profit by selling game-related products like copper coins to its members.

Of course, the players on both sides had no idea that Maximus had given much thought to a copper coin. They stood in the middle of the field, staring at each other, their eyes sparking sparks as they collided.

With a sharp whistle, the game officially began...

(End of this chapter)