2011 Rugby World Cup Time!

It's Rugby World Cup time in New Zealand.  If you are living in New Zealand and you are unaware of this fact, you must be living underneath a rock.

Everyone is hyped up about the World Cup.  It's all over the news.  Yesterday was the opening ceremony and opening game.  It would have been great to go to Auckland to check out the openers...except that Auckland is about 1hr 45min away...and there was a massive number of people there, and traffic!...and tickets are over $400.  Instead we sat in the comfort of our living room, watching on the telly (they like using the term telly here).

Opening Ceremony - Spectacular

There were mobs of people in Auckland.  Apparently, at the peak, there were about 100,000 people in the Central Business District (what we would call downtown).  People were doing flash haka mobs in the street.  A Haka is a traditional Maori dance.  One popular example is the Haka performed by the New Zealand rugby team before the game starts.

Here is the coles notes version (shorter) of the opening ceremony and first game.  You can get the gist in the first minute.

These next few links show the entire thing... the original footage is from a New Zealand TV station.


The ceremony incorporated many Maori cultural aspects.  The Call, the Journey.
The area that the light show is projected on is about 100m x 70m, the size of the rugby field.

• The Call - below 1min40s Maori woman performing a karakia, a formal greeting when opening a ceremony, calling the chiefs and champions together
• 2min50s it's like Lord of the Rings, travelling through New Zealands beautiful scenery via the light show
• then there is a Journey and some boats representing how people had arrived to NZ many years ago
• hammerhead sharks representing rugby, for how they hunt together in packs
• 9min or so - Haka - note the Maori traditional dress, and the classic bulging of the eyes, and sticking out of the tongues

Next - backyard rugby - little kid taking on some rugby players (the Gladiators).  Some neat choreography.

• my favourite part at 1min 56s - the try line moves and the kid scores a goal
• The Prize - rugby past greats culminating into Jonah Lomu, who has more tries scored than any other player in any Rugby World Cup
• the name of the trophy - The Webb Ellis Cup 

• at the beginning of the next clip, there is the Rugby World Cup Haka
• after that there are some speeches by the NZ Prime Minister and IRB Chief (International Rugby Board) - not too exciting

• then the next clip gets more exciting again with the fireworks show
• you get to see the Auckland cityscape...reminds me of Toronto with the tower and all (3min7s, 3min14s, 11min06s is about the end of the pyrotechnics show)

Now, I think I heard that the light show for the Rugby World Cup was done by the same person(s) as the Vancouver Winter Olympics (but I haven't been able to confirm this).  I found it pretty impressive.

Opening Game - New Zealand wins!

The opening game was New Zealand vs. Tonga.  New Zealand beat Tonga 41 - 10 at Eden Park in front of about 60K spectators.

More Rugby World Cup fun to come!

C