Some time in the early morning Sunday New Zealand beat France to win the Web Ellis Trophy in the Rugby World Cup. Now, I’m sure the Kiwi and Kangeroo on Greenlake was heaving at three in the morning when the final whistle blew. New Zealand were red hot favorites, lets just say the Kiwis at work were feeling confident on Friday.
It ended up being a lot close than many expected, including me. I thought that once the Haka was done the French were going to get roundly spanked. The game was not a wide open advert for the game, it was a tough defensive battle that either side could have won.
As fascinating as this is, it’s not what was remarkable about the game. It was live on one of the major TV channels, that was the good bit. I was able to sit at home with a glass of wine and enjoy live rugby. Yes, a wide open classic would have been nice, but unlike England’s victory in 2003 I did not have to go looking for a bar with the game on in the early hours of Sunday morning to enjoy the spectacle.
Over the last month there has been a lot of rugby on a couple of channels, and much of it, including all the USA games, have been live. OK it could be an indication of how much money NBC sports has left after paying for the Olympics, but I am a fan of this.
Saturday at work I got into a discussion over rugby with one of ex-pat friends. He’s from the North of England where they play Rugby League. I come from the South of England where we played Rugby Union.