Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A Sporting Chance
The arena where Kiwis have most sated their desperation for recognition on the world stage
is sport. In 2012, NZ was ranked the most successful sporting nation per capita in the world
(in 2013 it slipped to third behind Slovenia and Norway). NZ's teams are the current world
champions in Rugby Union, holding both the men's and women's world cup.
For most of the 20th century, NZ's All Blacks dominated international rugby union, with
one squad even dubbed 'The Invincibles'. Taking over this pastime of the British upper
class did wonders for national identity and the game is now interwoven with NZ's history
and culture. The 2011 Rugby World Cup victory did much to raise spirits after a year of
tragedy and economic gloom.
For all rugby's influence on the culture, don't go to a game expecting to be caught up in
an orgy of noise and cheering. Rugby crowds at Auckland's Eden Park are as restrained as
their teams are cavalier, but they get noisier as you head south. In contrast, a home game
for the NZ Warriors rugby league team at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium is a thrilling spec-
tacle, especially when the Polynesian drummers kick in.
Despite the everyman appeal of rugby union in NZ (unlike in the UK), rugby league re-
tains the status of the working-class sport and support is strongest from Auckland's Maori,
Polynesian and other immigrant communities. Still, taking the Rubgy League World Cup
off the Australians - NZ's constant arch-rivals - brought a smile to the faces of even the
staunchest supporters of the rival rugby code.
No matter where you are in NZ, you're never more than 128km from the sea.
Netball is the leading sport for women and the one in which the national team, the Silver
Ferns, perpetually vies for world supremacy with the Australians - one or other of the
countries has taken the world championship at every contest (except for a three-way tie in
1979).
In 2010 the All Whites, NZ's national soccer (football) squad, competed in the FIFA
World Cup for the second time ever, emerging with the totally unanticipated distinction of
being the only unbeaten team in the competition. They didn't win any games either, but
most Kiwis were overjoyed to have seen their first ever World Cup goals and three draws.
Sadly, they failed to qualify for the 2014 tournament.
