Well folks, today is game day! That’s right. The fateful day of the All Blacks match has finally arrived and I am so stoked that I am going to this match! We were originally planning on making it a weekend trip in Dunedin but since our car was full and one of the girls in the car had a final exam that morning, we decided to just have it be an overnight adventure. I spent the morning sitting around trying to learn as much about rugby as I could before we left and we got on the road shortly before noon. Thankfully, we had time on our side. The match didn’t start until 7:35 PM and the pre-game entertainment wasn’t set to start until 7:00 PM so we had seven hours to do a four hour drive.
Now, because exams had started, everyone except our poor driver was busy studying most of the drive there. Since we had so much time in the car together, it was nice to have a bit of silence. We all focused on our respective study topics and time passed pretty quickly. Luckily for me, I was able to read through 90% of my social psychology notes and even though I wasn’t doing intense studying, it was enough to at least review and jog my memory. Oh, another thing I forgot to mention were there were five of us in a little four and a half seater Honda. I saw four and a half because the middle seat was built for a small child, not a full grown college student. Oh well, I sat middle seat because I was the smallest (which is really unfortunate) but we all made the best of it.
We stopped about half way to Dunedin at a small roadside café for a late lunch/early dinner meal of some sort and I got the best Chicken and Bacon Panini I’ve ever had. It was fantastic. Of course, in New Zealand, their bacon is more like ham, but that’s alright. It was still really good and it definitely hit the spot. And of course, we had great conversation during our lunch. We covered everything from politics to social norms to plants and animal production. It was a good time. The only complaint I had was the one of the girls on my no camping list had one of the seats in the car, but it wasn’t my car and I didn’t know this until the day of so I was kind of S.O.L at that point. Oh well. It was a good test in patience this weekend. That’s for sure.
And of course, as they always do, shenanigans always manage to happen to me when I lease expect it. As we drove through Timaru, a small coastal town, we pulled up next to a car with four or five (it was hard to count because I was avoiding eye contact) Maori teenagers who couldn’t be more than 16 or so. They were making faces at us and shouting, acting like they wanted to race. Thankfully, Everto had no interest in racing them but they did continue to shout at us. And of course, one girl in the car *cough* Amanda *cough* decided that she wanted to engage with them and was smiling and blowing them kisses. So naturally, they pulled in front of us and we were mooned. Luckily for me, I only caught a slight bit of the full moon in front of us and just waited it out. They eventually pulled over and we were free. They were probably on their way back around town to look for another group of travelers to pester. So after surviving that, nothing else that exciting happened on the rest of our drive except for the traditional weird faces, laughing, and overall stupidity that just can’t be helped when placed with funny people in close quarters for an extended period of time.
But we made it to Dunedin by 5:30 PM and found the house we were going to be staying at. Everto, the guy who gave us a ride down there, had a friend in Dunedin who offered to let us stay at this flat for the night. We dropped all of our stuff off when we got there and hung out around the flat for a bit. Now, I was traveling with Everto, Danielle, Amanda and Ginny. Danielle and I are the only ones who don’t drink at all and Ginny only drinks occasionally. So, we were of course offered a beer when we got there and it was obvious that a number of people at the flat had already consumed copious amounts of alcohol. Danielle and I politely declined and I told him I would much rather observe from the periphery. It tends to be the safest place to be.
Now, I needed to pick up my ticket from will call so Danielle, Ginny and I decided to head down to the stadium on the early side. We had the opportunity to walk through the campus for the University of Otago and that was fun to see. They really have a beautiful camps because Dunedin in general has a very large Scottish influence. But it didn’t take me long to determine that I wouldn’t have wanted to go to school there and that I was very glad I chose to go to a school with the farm boys who wear socks and jandals on a regular basis. We stopped at a convenience store on the way to the stadium to get ourselves a nonalcoholic beverage (Sprite for me. I’m working on cutting out the colored soda from my life) and it was only a few more minutes to the stadium.
The town was already buzzing with activity and it looked like it had been for a long while. There were a number of people who looked prepared to go to the rugby match but would never make it through the security checkpoint and to their seats, but that’s alright. It was still a completely packed stadium for the game. The Forsyth Barr Stadium was built for the Rugby World Cup back in 2011 and was a completely covered facility. That made it great because it stayed relatively warm all night and in the case where rain was a possibility, we didn’t have to worry about being soaking wet and miserable. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. It took us a bit of time to find will call because it was located in an old container just away from the main hub of the stadium. Thankfully, they did in fact have my ticket and we were ready to go with plenty of time to spare.
Now, I ended up sitting by myself for the match because all of my friends wanted to sit in the cheap seats at the end of the stadium. I can’t say I blame them, but I figured that for the extra $60, it would be sweet to sit at the 22 yard line, four rows up. I mean, when in New Zealand, if you splurge money on anything, it’s All Blacks tickets and bungee jump photo and video packages! And I must say, it was completely worth it! I had fantastic seat and as the players spent time warming up, I could see the beads of sweat already rolling down their faces. I know immediately it was going to be a great game! Once I saw down I realized that I would very quickly be making friends. There was an elderly couple sitting on my left, who appeared to be in their late 70’s or early 80’s. I quickly learned that the gentleman had played rugby since he was a little boy and had a huge passion for the sport. He still sported a nice cauliflower ear and he said his body took the beating for him all those years. You could tell though, his soul still longed for the sport. His wife was also a spitfire and they were armed with their portable radios so they could hear the calls the officials were making on the field.
The other group of gentlemen I met were a little more up my alley as far as my expectations were for rugby fans in New Zealand. There were five of them in total, all who played rugby as young boys but stopped because they didn’t want to get hit anymore. I could understand that. They consumed beer in copious amounts but were nothing but friendly throughout the entire match. They explained parts of the game that were still a bit fuzzy to me and commended me on deciding to come to New Zealand instead of Australia or Europe. They were all so very proud of their small country and you could see it in their eyes when the All Blacks successfully got a try (similar to a touchdown in American Football) that they were Kiwis through and through.
Now, back to the actual events that took place. Emeli Sande performed for about 15 or so minutes before the match started. She performed her hit “Next to Me” and a few others that I recognized but couldn’t really make out due to the increasing noise in the stadium. There were flag girls and gymnasts performing on the field as well. It wasn’t long though before she had completed her entertainment for the night and was ushered off the field. The noise level continued to increase and before I knew it, the stadium was completely full. There wasn’t an empty seat anywhere to be seen and there was standing room only everywhere else. Both the Wallabies and the All Blacks were welcomed to the field and each nation’s national anthem was sung. I was so surprised to hear a lot of Kiwis join in and sing the Australian national anthem, although they sung their own with way more passion. I half expected there to be a huge rivalry between the fans that turned into otherwise inappropriate behavior, but as far as I could see that wasn’t the case. American sports fans should take a few lessons from these people.
So once the anthems had been sung and the players lined up on the field, it was time for the haka. Now, I will admit, one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to go to an All Blacks game was to see them do the haka. And let me tell you, there is nothing in the world like seeing full grown, monstrous men stomping the ground and beating their arms and legs while you just stand there, arms linked with your teammates, hoping you don’t pee your pants. If I had been in the Australian players shoes, I probably would have just curled into the fetal position and laid there the rest of the night. The entire stadium roared and immediately the full stadium wave was underway. And it didn’t really stop until the last 60 or so seconds of the match.
Now I highly recommend that anyone who hasn’t seen a game of rugby go online and watch one right away. Rugby is a fantastic sport and a thrill to watch. The best part is that you only need to know a few basics and the rest gets filled in as you go. The basics are: you can’t throw the ball forwards. You can throw it side to side and behind you only. You are allowed to kick the ball forward however. A try is when the players carry the ball (well, usually dive with the ball) into the try zone at the end of the field, and that is worth 5 points. A subsequent kick from the 10 meter line after a try is worth 2, with the total points for a successful try and kick adding up to 7. A simple kick between the posts is worth 3. And after that, pretty much all major rules are off the table. There are finer points that you can pick up along the way, but those are the basics. As long as you know which team you are rooting for and which way they are supposed to be running, you’re as good as gold!
The game itself was incredible. The All Blacks got off to a great start and despite a few mistakes that cost them a few points, they never missed a step. The final score of the match was 41-33 in favor of the Blacks and there were definitely a few Australian Wallabies shedding tears that night. Just remember, there’s no crying in rugby, unless you’re Australian! I eventually made my way to meet up with my friends after enjoying the celebration of high-fives with some beautiful strangers and we headed back to the house we were crashing at for the night. Ginny, Danielle and I didn’t have dinner before the match, so we decided to wander around town for a while before we called it in for the night. We came across a Hell’s Pizza, a fantastic pizza shop that can be found through New Zealand, and we indulged in some delicious pizza.
I must say though, it would have been quite interesting to walk through the heart of town for a few hours to just watch the shenanigans unfold. Apparently they shut down the center of town, otherwise known as the Octagon, for a huge after part. That’s alright though. We decided we could go by the following morning and check it out then. It didn’t take us long to walk back to the house and we made ourselves comfortable and pulled up the Sound of Music and devoured all of our pizza. Overall, today was a great day filled with awesome sport and fantastic strangers! I must say, that my experience at the All Black’s game, was probably one of my favorite New Zealand experience so far. But a close runner up, is definitely hurling myself off a bridge. Because I mean really, it’s required when you go to New Zealand. You can’t help but get a little reckless and go a little crazy.