The World Is Watching

Rugby World Cup. That’s all you hear about in New Zealand at the moment. It has been an eventful first few days for the country. Rugby is virtually unheard of in the US, but throughout the rest of the world, it’s a big deal. Apparently the Rugby World Cup is the fourth largest sporting event in the world behind the Soccer World Cup, Olympics, and the Tour de France. The sport dates back the 19^th century in England and not surprisingly many of the nations competing are associated with the British Commonwealth or have roots as a British colony.

We attended the opening day festivities on the Auckland waterfront that drew 100,000 people from all over the world. Most of the crowd was wearing black in support of their New Zealand team, however there were plenty of supporters of Australia, South Africa, England, Tonga, Samoa and even a few rooting for USA. On the waterfront there were bands playing, Maori warriors navigating their waka (large canoe type boat) through the harbor, and fireworks. We took in some of the action on the waterfront and retreated back to the apartment to watch the opening ceremonies and game. Neither disappointed, the opening ceremonies were in the league of what is put on at the Olympics and the New Zealand All Blacks beat up on Tonga in the opening match.

We then headed to New Plymouth to take in USA’s first match against Ireland. New Plymouth didn’t have many attractions outside of Mt. Taranaki and some black sand beaches that pop up all over the west coast.

The game ended up being the highlight of our trip to New Plymouth, although the only objection I have is that USA fell a little short on the scoreboard.  Ireland is ranked in the top 5 in the world for rugby and had the fan base to back it up. The stadium and the town were overrun by those leprechauns as they must have outnumbered USA supporters by at least 9 to 1. The stadium wasn’t all that large, it probably fit around 20,000 fans, however the atmosphere was amazing. Even in limited numbers, the USA fans made their presence felt, and of course the Irish that had packed the town’s three bars before the game made plenty of noise.

Even though I still have trouble understanding how the game works, it was apparent that the USA doesn't have the same skill level as the Irish. Our guys didn’t appear to be very good at the scrum or at gaining yardage by throwing the ball. However we did have a pretty impressive defense as our guys laid a couple of NFL style hits that left the Irish dazed. We kept it close in the first half, and trailed only 3-0 with 30 seconds left in the half. The second half belonged to the Irish, and the game ended up 22-10.

The cold war game is up next on Thursday. Russia is one of the lowest ranked teams in the tournament, so this is USA’s best chance to record a W. We’re heading to the New Zealand vs Japan game on Friday. We are pumped up to catch more All Blacks action live and soak in the local excitement.