Victorious

There was a huge sigh of relief in New Zealand around 11 pm last night. The All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1987. With the tournament being held in New Zealand, and with the All Blacks largely considered the best team, having gone undefeated and really unchallenged until this game…..there was an expectation of victory. Everything around Auckland has been All Black in the last couple of days. The newspapers were about 95% rugby coverage (this in the month leading up to a national prime minister election in November).  Everyone has been wearing black. All Black flags hang out of most windows. To quote the rap song on the radio “Everything All Black, Everything All Black”.

Video of the pre game Haka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN65LHLYS10

The finals vs France were too close for comfort. The game ended 8-7, with the All Blacks coming up with a strong defensive stand in the waning moments. You could feel the nervousness in the announcers voices and all of New Zealand as the French tried to get themselves in position for a game-winning kick.

Highlights of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snoWwdvLLMQ

There have been some great stories from this team. Rugby is a vicious game and there have been many injuries, providing a few guys not originally on the team a chance to play in the World Cup. The first five eighths position, the quarterback of rugby, has gone through four players for the tournament. #1 Dan Carter – largely seen as the best player in the world, went down early in the tournament. #2 Colin Slade – barely got through a game and a half before getting injured. #3 Aaron Cruden – can’t be much bigger than 5’8’’ 160 lbs, so by far the smallest guy on the field. Heart warming story of coming back from cancer recently to get called and perform well with the team in the Quarter and Semi Finals. Unfortunately he also got hurt in the finals, bringing in Stephen Donald, who hadn’t been in the All Blacks team picture at all until this week. He went from fishing to kicking the winning goal in the finals. Great story.

There was a great sense of pride among Kiwis today. A victory parade drew 250,000 fans downtown (pretty good considering Auckland has only 1.4 million people). We were happy to be here to experience the passion the Kiwis have for their national sport and their country.