Rugby Crusade
My first live rugby experience is a special one. We go to the temporary stadium in Christchurch (the old one was damaged in the earthquake and is being demolished) to watch the Canterbury Crusaders play the Auckland Chiefs. The Canterbury team is known to be very strong, they were the prior year's champions. A lot of their players play for the World Champion New Zealand All Blacks team. It's February, so it's early for rugby and we're watching the first game of the season.
I'm super excited. I find rugby to be more interesting and engaging than American football. And it's great to see how into rugby the Kiwis are. Everyone is wearing the Red and Black colors of the team and they give all spectators the Crusaders banner. The most interesting thing is the whole stage impersonation of the idea of Crusaders - with horses and costumed riders riding around the field prior to the game to a song, vaguely reminiscent of a medieval chant. It is interesting to observe that for most Kiwis, the idea of the crusades and what they represented is not associated with a lot of historical memories. That's easy to understand given the geographical distance of New Zealand from the lands where the crusades took place.
I enjoy the game, but what I enjoy even more is how much everyone is into the game. Families with kids are decked out in the colors of the team and everyone is reacting quite emotionally to everything going on in the field. It was an interesting game, with the Crusaders leading the first half, the Chiefs briefly taking the lead in the second half before the Crusaders won. There were quite a few nail biting moments with the referees having to make some tough calls.
The best part of the game came at the end when the field was opened for everyone to come on it and mix and mingle with the players. You'd never see that in professionals sports in the US. It was super cute to see all the kids going to get autographs from their favorite players. I wanted to take a photo with one player but Brent didn't like that his number was 23. He told me to "look for a number less than 15" - that is, someone who is not a reserve. I chose #8, who scored one of the tries in the game - Jordan Taufua.
Lisa with Number 8: Jordan Taufua
