The All Blacks vs. Australia

I'm going to start integrating recent happenings with my archival accounts so as not to lose track of things. A note on New Zealand sports: There is no football, there is no baseball, there is no basketball. This is true at least in the general interest of the public. The only sport worth playing, talking about or arguing over is rugby. Having never been exposed to rugby or its rules in America, I was shocked and impressed when I first watched a weekend high school Rugby game next door to one of my orientation sessions at Rotorua. Rugby takes American football and multiplies the testosterone and general masculinity by ten. I swear to god these 14 year old kids all had more facial hair than I do. So, Rugby. Teams in New Zealand salute/challenge each other by performing the Haka, the war chant of the native Maori species. Here's a minute or so of the high school team performing the Haka. You can't see them very well, but the chant itself involves aggressive and masculine hand and torso movement involving the slapping of the knees and waving of hands in the air. I swear to god these kids are 14 years old. I almost crapped my pants.




New Zealand rugby is ten times more hardcore than American football for the following four reasons:

1) They do not wear armour of any kind, aside from the occasional soft helmet.
2) Aside from halftime, the clock never stops. When a player goes down, the game is still played; there is an entire aspect of the game devoted to getting the ball to another teammate after you've fallen or forcing the ball from the fallen players hands. This involves ridiculous pigpiles and bloody noses.
3) These guys hit each other in ways that would surely be considered uncool to an American football ref. I'm going to reiterate again that this is full contact American football on steroids and with absolutely no body armour.
4) They wear nothing but black.

The ball cannot be thrown forward, only lateralled to another teammate who then runs forward with the ball. It can, however, be kicked forwards, but the rugby ball does not sail as far as the football. Seeing an almost-football game played with mostly lateral passes is thrilling and makes for very interesting and complex gameplay.

As I was saying, rugby is THE sport here, and New Zealand has one professional team that competes on a worldwide level: The All Blacks. There is a loyalty and passion for the All Blacks that no regional American football team could garner. The reason for this is simple: The All Blacks represent the entire country of New Zealand. Where our country is divided by countless sports teams divided by the individual state, the All Blacks inspire a sense of unity and pride that could only be felt from an entire nation of people. New Zealand is a small country and it's people often think of their country as the isolated, lone ranger or the underdog. They are proud and quick to the defense of their country, but there is no denying their relatively tiny influence in an international scale. The Lord of the Rings was and is such a huge phenominon here because it gave the people something huge to be proud of; it was worldwide proof of what they believed in all along. This country is thirsty for pride and recognition. The All Blacks are always a chance for New Zealand to shine amongst its international peers, and the people here use their team as a conduit to channel their pride and support of their country. When the Blacks play, the only thing you're going to find on any television across Wellington in any pub or restraunt is the rugby game, and it's all anyone is going to be doing. Using sheer will-power, women have been known to force themselves out of labor for these games.

On Saturday, the night of the 18th, The All Blacks played Australia in Auckland. This was allegedly the biggest sports event of the year, as Australia is New Zealand's bitter rival in more than a few ways. It's relatively close proximity, dwarf-like land mass, and close similarities (especially in their accent) have made Australia the Empire to New Zealand's Rebel Alliance. The people here know they are inferior to Australia in more than a few ways, but they support their home nonetheless. I joined some kiwis, americans and international students to watch the game and play some pool at a local pub. If you're at all interested in knowing, I lost my first game by scratching the 8-ball. I tell it like it is.





The cheering and genuine enthusiasm of the kiwis was enthrilling. I could feel their pride for their country, and they showed it for their rugby team. It's really great to see an entire country unite behind something like this. The game is divided into two fourty minute halves, and it's over in about ninety minutes. It's odd watching an entire fourty minutes of a sport with absolutely no commercial interruptions; I had to applaud them for it. The game got a bit tense during the closing minutes, but the blacks managed to secure a victory over their Australian rivals. The cheering clapping was very powerful and sent chills through me. Overall, the pub had a really great vibe and it was an awesome experience.

I just need to throw this last picture in here because it cracked me up. After the game and a few more games of pool, we stopped at a McDonalds to get some food. There, outside of the male toilets in all its glory, was a framed poster of The Return of the King. I wasn't kidding when I said they're proud of their Oscars.



Until next time,

Bill