Rugby Union

You will note that my title says Rugby Union and not just Rugby. To the uninitiated I would respectfully advise that there is Rugby Union and Rugby League. Two quite distinctly different games. Just as bit of history I would advise that Rugby Union came into being at Rugby College England and was seen as a game for the Upper Class. Later the working class decided they wanted their game and that was the creation of Rugby League. Now Rugby League is seen as the equal of Rugby Union and like Rugby Union it is played by many Nations throughout the world

What has prompted me to write this is to just make a comment about all the recent postings on Facebook. To those of you who browse through the daily postings I ask if you have noticed that lately every third or fourth posting seems to be about some team called the All Blacks or somebody in that team. How great a certain player is...How they have now achieved being the top team in the world for five years.....How they are the current World Champions.....How they are beating all teams they play at present.....How they will be such a force in the upcoming World Cup. Do you get sick of seeing all this over and over? A better question is... Do I get sick of seeing all this over and over? True answer....No way!!! I love it. I am a true blue Kiwi and like 90% of New Zealanders am so very proud of our Men in Black.

Why are we so proud of our All Blacks? For a number of reasons. Firstly because of their continued good performances and results against all nations. Their many good performances in the World Cup competition. Most of all we are proud of them because population must come into the equation We are even today under 5 million and when you take out women,children and non players it really is only a small pool that our All Blacks are picked from compared to the other major nations

Also we are proud because of the names of players that are recognised throughout the world. Names like George Nepia, Bob Scott, Don Clarke .and now the great McCaw. When I mention Don Clarke I have the memory of one particular game against England...Clarke was a magnificent goal kicker and in this game he actually scored all our points. In the next edition of the National paper the headline read, England 17 Don Clarke 18.

Having this chat about Rugby Union and the All Blacks has me obviously thinking about next years World Cup. Before starting on that I know you will be thinking that I am going to tell you that the All Blacks have won this competition more often than any other Nation. No that is in fact not the case. The competition has taken place 7 times with Australia. New Zealand and South Africa having won twice each and England once.

What are my thoughts on this upcoming World Cup.... You may be thinking that my thoughts are that it is almost a forgone conclusion that New Zealand will win but that is certainly not the case. I am fairly confident that we will make the final 4 but from there it is anyones guess. There a number of nations that, (in my opinion) have a serious chance of final victory.

To finish this I will just say that what ever happens this is a tournament that is truly loved and followed by Rugby Union fans worldwide.

My final words are as you would expect......Go the All Blacks.