go the All Blacks

I went to the big game against Australia (mate) w/ Steve and Samir and others. It was freezing cold and pouring rain and we got totally soaked. On the line: the Tri-nations cup AND the Bledisloe cup. In this first picture we see the All Blacks welcoming the Wallabies with the Haka. The haka is a Maori thang - it looks pretty aggressive, however, the main point of the haka, as I understand it, is for the peeps doing the haka to get themselves pumped up for battle, not so much to intimidate their opponent.



Here, Samir, Steve and I are performing our own Haka to greet the dirty Wallabies. I must say we've got it down quite well, but, Samir has missed an important nuance of the haka which is to stick your tongue out as far as you can, as well as open your eyes as wide as you can (he's from London).





Here's a scrum. It's really interesting to watch rugby and see where american football comes from. This is the ancestral source of how each down starts in american football or 'gridiron' as they call it here.











here's a peek of the stadium. Although this was a massive game, worthy of Wimbley stadium, it was played in a stadium about the size of most Texas highschool football stadiums. Remember, NZ only has ~4.5million people in the whole country. This is one reason they're so proud of their achievements on the world stage. It is certain that the All Blacks will be the world champion rugby team this year at the rugby world cup held in France this Sept (note the bottle in the air, mid-picture).