The Land of Rugby

I'm now in Wellington, where I'll spend the next 4 nights and attend 2 of my 3 rugby matches. So far I haven't seen much of town, but I did wander a bit, and found that the city is pretty small and walkable, although the big hills make it less so.

I'm a fan of Bill Bryson, and agree with him that it's always most fun and informative to get to know an unfamiliar place by reading the local newspaper (if you speak the language). So that's exactly what I've done the last couple of days, perusing free hotel copies of the New Zealand Herald and watching TV news now and then.

It has just confirmed my impression that the whole country is rugby mad.

Since Tuesday, all print and news media have been scandalized over what they've dubbed the French Farce. But what could this French Farce be? Government corruption? Ridiculous celebrity antics?

Nope. Team France announced their squad for Saturday's match against New Zealand, and it was largely second-string players. HOW DARE THEY?!

To put it in context, France and the All-Blacks have created quite a rivalry in World Cup play, but this is the first time they're playing each other before the final rounds. As such, this is a highly anticipated match, which sold out the 62,000 seats at Eden Park, with tickets costing as much as $460 apiece.

Mounting the B team is actually a safe move for the French, being that they're all but guaranteed to meet New Zealand again in the pool final, even if they lose the preliminary game. There's no reason to tire and bang up the best players when you know you'll meet again, and the outcome doesn't matter.

To the Kiwis, though, this ranges from an unintended insult, to a calculated attempt to enrage the locals, to a strategic conspiracy that ensures France will win the game. The logic of the last point being that if the All-Blacks see the backup players and become certain they will win, they almost surely won't.

Even aside from the French Farce, all news is dominated by the World Cup. Four miners who died in a recent cave-in got 2-3 minutes on the morning show today, wedged between a 5-minute segment on rules surrounding a scrum, and 5 more minutes on the New Zealand player line-up. On commercial breaks, every store is advertising their All-Blacks merchandise, with one newspaper ad calling out a limit of 10 team flags per customer.

What on earth would one person need with more than 10 New Zealand All-Blacks flags?

In The Bluffer's Guide to Rugby, Alexander Rae sums up the Kiwi obsession fairly accurately (I'm paraphrasing, because I don't have the book on me): New Zealand is known for rugby and sheep, and since the sheep are nothing out of the ordinary, they are overly serious about the rugby.

Indeed.

That being said, I have yet to see a single sheep.