The Rugby Effing World Cup, Dude

After some research this morning, I determined that I can take a train from my remote hotel to most of what I want to see, located the nearest station, and noted down the appropriate routes. Then I had some lunch and turned on the television... and hours later, I haven't seen any of Auckland.

Crouch...

I only have 10 channels here in my hotel room, 2 of which are Sky Sport stations. They're showing all the Rugby World Cup matches live, and when nothing much else is going on, they replay games that happened in the past few days. So as soon as I sat down in front of the TV for few minutes, I was sucked into 2 full matches. I barely looked away. And suddenly it was after 4 pm.

I didn't feel like starting an adventure that late in the afternoon, especially with mild jet lag. Instead I went out for a walk, because the map shows mostly grassy park-type areas nearby. But all I found was a very strong wind blowing around a few huge parking lots, a hospital, a golf course, and a racetrack. Within 30 minutes I was back in my room, absorbed in a third rugby match.

...Touch...

Whenever I've talked to anyone about my trip here, they're all jealous of my visiting New Zealand, but confused by the rugby aspect. On the flight in, my seatmate was a Kiwi who I got on quite well with, and she was perplexed by my situation as well: "So you're from America, but you follow the rugby. How did that happen?"

I had no idea; I couldn't remember. Not until sometime during Game Two this afternoon.

...Pause...

It started when I was in grad school, and I had Fox Sports World as a basic cable station. I liked watching sports, and was enamored with anything from the United Kingdom, so when I happened across a 6 Nations match one day, I watched it for a few minutes... which turned into watching the rest of the game. And then several more of the games. I was hooked.

I watched as much of RWC 1999 as I could, sometimes staying up half the night to see the off-hours matches live. I saw a USA vs Scotland exhibition match in Oregon for the run-up to the 2003 World Cup. It was the pinnacle of rugby union. And I wanted to go to there.

...ENGAGE!

Along the way, my brother started playing rugby, which got me even more involved in the sport. When he gave it up, and I stopped having any stations that showed games, I didn't stay a close follower, but I still wanted to go to Rugby World Cup. The desire never went away.

That's why I'm here. And I'm still having trouble believing that it's real, that I'm so lucky, that I actually have tickets to matches. So you know what? I'm quite happy to spend my first day in New Zealand sitting in a hotel room watching world cup rugby on TV. Quite happy indeed.