"So Are ALL Canadians Lumberjacks Or What?"

September 16th - September 18th

Before coming to New Zealand, we knew we were going to be here during the Rugby World Cup (RWC), but I don't think we understood how big of a deal this was going to be. Kiwis are crazy about their rugby. And coming from Canada, where rugby is not really a big deal, we didn't know much about it. But, we figured it'd be part of the NZ experience to go to a game. So we decided to get tickets.

We had the choice between travelling a few hours to go see Canada play, or we could stay in Hamilton to see the All Blacks play (for those of you who don't know rugby... that's New Zealand's team). With all the hype over the All Blacks, we decided it would be more of a true Kiwi experience to go see them play in their home territory.

Friday, September 16th: ALL BLACKS VS JAPAN

The Waikato Stadium in Hamilton normally has capacity for 26000 people, but with temporary seating installed, they were able to add an extra 5000 seats. With an anticipated full stadium, and very little parking available nearby, we decided we would be better off getting downtown earlier rather than later. After getting a prime parking spot, we went for dinner at a restaurant called The Bank and then checked out the Hamilton Fan Zone.

They closed down a couple streets downtown, put a stage and a big screen, and had some live music before the game. There were tents set up selling hot dogs and a make-shift attempt at a carnival, with 2 rides and one food booth selling the typical fair food (cotton candy and fried foods). And for some reason, a group of scantily dressed girls on rollerblades making laps up and down the street.

Looked like Hamilton had put some time into planning its big RWC debut. The only thing missing was people. There were only a few groups of people wandering about. (Maybe it would pick up for them later in the night)

We then made our way to the stadium, which was about a 15 minute walk from the Fan Zone. There were free shuttle buses taking people there, but we had lots of time and it was much warmer if we walked. A few blocks into it, we found ourselves surrounded by hardcore All Blacks fans. Dressed up, faces painted, flags waving, we could sense the excitement and anticipation of the fans. We would be lying if we said this didn't get us excited for it.

After checking out the stadium, we found our seats, which happened to be in the temporary seating sections, behind the goal post, about mid-field.

View of the field from our seats.

Both teams entered onto the field, and we had a moment of silence in honor of the thousands of people effected by both the Japan and the New Zealand earthquake, followed by the national anthems. 

And then the All Blacks did the Haka. We have a video but it was too big to upload. :( 

For those of you who don't already know, the All Blacks do a traditional Maori Haka dance before every game. It is meant to assert their power and intimidate their opponents. Some teams will do their own intimidation dance back at them, but I think it is mainly a New Zealand thing.

Then came the game. Let's just preface this by noting that the All Blacks are #1 in the league, whereas Japan is ranked #13. So as you can imagine, the Japanese were looking a bit beat up.

The All Blacks scored a try (a goal) pretty early on, and subsequently scored 12 more throughout the game. Japan managed to score 1 try. Making the final score 83 to 7. The All Blacks are a pretty amazing team to watch. But, the most amazing thing was that the crowd was not at all what we expected.

Now, we understand that what we have to compare this to are Canadian hockey games, and they shouldn't really be comparable. But.... come on. The fans were so concentrated on the game, that there was not as much cheering as we had expected.

There were several attempts at starting the 'wave', but was only successful once, and then failed every other time. And there were a few people who got mad when people stood up when to cheer when the All Blacks were just about to score a try. The only redeeming feature of the crowd was that they gave Japan a great big cheer when they finally scored a try (possibly even bigger cheers than when NZ scored). 

But, despite the disappointing crowd, we still had a great time at the game and we do not regret the decision to go see the All Blacks instead of Canada.

Saturday, September 17th: AUSTRALIA vs IRELAND

Since we were staying in town for the rest of the weekend (so Scott could catch up on a bit of school work) we decided we'd go out to catch some of the other games that were playing. While walking along in the Fan Zone the night before, we noticed a pub that looked like it had great screens and fairly comfy place to watch the game. So... we thought we'd check it out.

What we didn't know before was that this pub has named itself the unofficial Wales embassy, which became apparent as soon as you walk in. It was FULL of Welsh people. Not thinking much of it, we found a great place to sit and watch the game. We weren't sure how the Welsh got along with the Irish, but we were pleasantly surprised when they all started cheering and singing when Ireland scored their first points. Sitting next to us was a Welsh man named Greg, who played professional rugby back in the day in Wales, who gave us an inside perspective on the Welsh fans and rugby.

Ireland ended up beating Australia in a really close game. This was a pretty big upset for the Aussies, who were expected to take first place in their pool. But now it looks like Ireland might take that from them. Of course we are cheering for Ireland, mainly because right now we live with a guy from Ireland, and on behalf of Kieran, the Irishman who we met in Fiji. GO IRELAND!!

Sunday, September 18th: CANADA vs FRANCE

 Bertie supporting Team Canada

Having heard the night before that the Welsh don't really like France, and that they would be cheering for Canada, we decided we'd meet them all back at that same pub for Canada's game.

This time Darcy (another Canadian exchange student from Victoria) and Viljami (our Finnish housemate) came along with us. We got to the pub at about 7:45pm, and again, it was full of the same Welsh people who were all celebrating their teams win earlier that day.

Us with Greg from Wales

Viljami was threatening to cheer for France, but that plan was quickly thwarted by making him wear our Canadian flag on his back like a cape. A lady came up to us wanting to take a picture of the Canadian fans. When Viljami started to pose, smiling for the picture, she said, "no offense, but can you turn around so I can get a picture of the flag". A few minutes later she came up to Viljami with a pen and paper and asked him if he could write down the lyrics to our national anthem for her so she could sing along with us. Our plan to force Viljami into cheering for Canada worked... but that was a dead give away. He came clean and Scott proceeded to write the lyrics down for her.

Darcy showing her true Canadian spirit

The game started out really well with Canada scoring the first points. I don't think there was one person in the place that wasn't cheering for Canada. There were lots of "Let's Go Canada, Let's Go" chanting and cheering, even though we probably only counted 10 obvious Canadians. We met a lady from Vancouver Island, and a couple of guys from Vancouver.



And... one girl who claimed to be Canadian but when we asked her where she was from, she said "oh... like... uhmm... Ontario" and then after the game, she said "oh well, we'll just stick to ice hockey". How many Canadians actually say that. It is hockey. Not ICE hockey. Dead giveaway.

Canada stayed in the game until the second half, where they were getting sloppy and giving away points by getting penalty after penalty. It didn't help that France had a really good kicker who made all but one penalty kicks. Overall, Canada put up a good fight but lost 19-46. Obviously the French were not intimidated by the bearded Canadian men.

If you meet some Kiwi's and they think that all Canadians are lumberjacks... you have rugby to blame.

In trying to figure out why they would grow such things, Darcy and Nikki figured out that it must be a tactical move on their part. For example, when it is raining and the ball is slippery, just mop it up with your beard and you are good to go. But then the downfall would be all the pulling and tugging of the beard that would inevitably happen when you get tackled. OUCH.

We had a great weekend full of rugby. We never expected to get so into it, but we now find ourselves looking at the pool scores and checking out who is playing who next, and anticipating upcoming games. It's hard not to get into it when you are surrounded by it everyday. The Rugby World Cup is going on for another month, with the final game on October 23rd. We'll see what we have to say if you ask us in a month how we feel about rugby. We might be a little sick of it then. But for now, we are enjoying it.  

Three Canadians and one crazy Finn

Look out All Blacks, The Canadians will get you.