Black for Mourning

Nearly as quick I write about the Rugby World Cup, it is over for New Zealand. Yesterday The All Blacks lost to France in the quarter finals. It was a close match, but in the end NZ couldn't pull ahead before the whistle blew. Needless to say, the whole country is sad and disappointed and are talking about how it's going to be another long 4 years until they have another chance. (Maybe they'll have better luck on their home turf though.)

The All Blacks are an incredible team, but right now their country is wearing black for mourning instead of celebration. It is a very sad day when both NZ and Australia are sent home from the world cup far to early AND K-State loses to KU!

When all else fails... Allé les Bleu!

Here's a sign we saw at a store just hours after the All Blacks lost. :(

Ruby World Cup

In case you haven't heard, the Rugby World Cup is on! Rugby is a a huge part of the NZ culture and they love their All Blacks (the national rugby team)... and with good reason. The All Blacks are generally considered the best rugby team in the world, and have been for some time. While they've let the world down in the past when it comes to major competitions, they're still picked to win this year's cup in France and are well on their way.

The All Blacks are the team that other national teams dream of playing, even if it means being beaten terribly... and that's what's happened to Italy, Portugal, Romania, and Scotland so far. Portugal has taken the hardest loss so far with a final score of 108-13, but they left the field gracious and happy to have had the opportunity. Crazy! New Zealand is currently leading in points for their pool and are continuing on to the quarter finals, where they will play France.

A huge ad in downtown Auckland began counting down the weeks, days, hours, and minutes to the world cup months and months ago and now that their moment is finally here, they're not letting one second of this month long competition pass them by. Their AB heroes are in almost every TV commercial, replays of the matches seem to be played around the clock, the Sky Tower gets blacked out on game nights and it seems to be the center of everything around here.

Unfortunately, NZ's time doesn't quite coordinate w/ France, so we're up till the early hours of the morning to watch the matches live. It's an exciting time to be here and experience it along with NZ... only a shame that we won't be here when they host the next World Cup in 2011. Luckily, we've been here long enough to have learned a lot about the game (especially Andy) and have been to several All Blacks matches... which makes it that much more personal for us.

Hopefully, there is a lot more excitement to come... maybe you can even check out a match if they're showing in the U.S. (Although, sadly the U.S. rugby team isn't fairing too well.) Here's all the details if you want to know more: http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/

Go the All Blacks!