Canterbury Crusaders 18, Durbin Sharks 10

On Friday night, I finally got a proper introduction to one of the Kiwi national sports: rugby. Christchurch is home to the national champions of the Super 14 rugby league (Super 14 would be the equivalent of Major League Baseball; there is a NZ national team and provincial teams that might be akin to the minor leagues), which is spread across NZ, Australia and South Africa. Friday night, the Canterbury Crusaders (10-0-1) played the Durbin (S.A.) Sharks (7-1-3) here at home. The Company sent me along with my boss, Shane No. 1, and 6 clients, to the game for the evening.

The night was forecast rather ominously: a major system of rain and cold yuckiness was moving in, and unfortunately, the corporate seats, while on the VIP level, were just outside the roof covering. We were all treated to a nice buffet dinner and open bar tab where the red wine and beer flowed, before the game (and rain/hail/sleet) started. We shuffled out into the cold at the start of the game, and stayed out there until half-time when the weather got to be too much. I think I might have been the only one paying attention to the game, maybe with the exception of the CCC guys, who were a bit more into the game. Apparently, it was a slow, low-scoring game that was considered a bit boring, but I had no clue how the whole thing worked and tried to follow as best I could. It wasn't until the second half, when we snuck out into some VIP seats under cover, that someone explained the concept of "offsides" which justified all the back-row guys just standing around. I realize this may seem pretty self-evident to those who know the game, but it isn't present in American football (what other kind is there?) - once the ball is in play, you can go where-ever you want. Anyway, back to the game - it was apparently boring. I can explain rugby to other clueless Yanks now, though, I think, as I am no longer a rugby virgin. There were no stunning plays or big controversies, but just like your other first times, it went by pretty quickly and I think I missed a lot of the fun of a more "typical" rugby match. The field was very sloppy and the ball changed possession quite a bit, and there did seem to be one final kick that some considered controversial, but the minor details were a bit lost on me. The night was quite good in other respects - I met up with a bunch of key clients and in the same pop, discovered a fellow golden retriever lover, a pile of skiers, and a project manager who is also a single bachelor looking to live it up down on SOL Square - we ended up staying out until about 3am the next morning in what I think may be the first of many long nights out in The Lanes.

I will have to head back down for another game in better weather, over in the cheap seats with the "fun" crowd to gauge how much of a Crusaders fan I want to become, but given the impossibility of getting any Nittany Lion or Broncos games down here, they seem like a reasonable alternative. Season tix are maybe NZ$300 a pop?

This week, in Living Strange in New Zealand: TV in New Zealand is covered with public service ad campaigns; they're on all the time. There's the gambling addiction campaign, the anti-speeding campaign, a shockingly graphic anti-drinking campaign, the sustainable living campaign, the better parenting campaign, etc. But now, the fine folks at TVNZ have hit on a fine campaign against one of the biggest scourges of modern society: unpaid parking tickets. That's right, someone is spending our hard-earned tax money (and trust me, they have a lot of my hard-earned money!) on a series of slick ads in the Mastercard style to encourage people to pay their delinquent fines. Talk about a nanny state!