This may be the first and last time I mention sport on this blog….

I played rugby when I was in primary school. The geek in me won out by age 11, all that running around a sports field in mid-winter just couldn’t compete with curling up at home with my funky new ZX81.

I guess I started watching again in my late 20s, mainly because my Dad is a rugby fan and I like hanging out with my Dad, but also because it’s hard not to become at least a little bit interested in rugby when your local team is the equivalent of Manchester United in the Football world [1]. The Crusaders aren’t playing at the moment, it being the International party of the rugby season, but tonight is Canterbury vs Auckland in the NPC, and the All Blacks vs Romania in France, so a big night and I’m up in Kaikoura with my parents to watch it.

It’s about bloody time we won the World Cup again, given that we supposedly have the best team on the planet, but come Cup time we keep, er, choking[2]. To give you an idea of how important this thing is to our national psyche, and how much kudos will go to the guys who bring it home, the only All Black captain to actually hold it aloft, has now risen up to become CEO of Fairfax NZ, the biggest media conglomerate we have – they own piles of newspapers and magazines, and after their acquisition of Trademe they probably receive about 85% of all pageviews from Kiwi browsers. In this country at least, Murdoch don’t got nothing on David Kirk.

So without further adieu, I give you our new National Anthem: “God Defend the All Blacks”

…because I’d hate to be the last Rugby watching Kiwi Geek on earth to embed it.

Trivia 1: My favorite agile development methodology is Scrum.

Trivia 2: TV3 has the games in a format suitable for importing into various calendar programs.

Trivia 3: Check out the Kiwi Architectural Invasion of Paris. Interclue got reviewed in Le Monde a couple months ago, I hope they don’t figure out we come from the place that inflicted that on them, they might never mention us again. On the other hand apparently the All Blacks are very popular in France right now so maybe it’s ok after all.

Trivia 4: I’m definitely expecting the All Blacks to win it this time, but I’m far from this confident. In fact, if it wouldn’t mean backing the team we all love to hate, I’d go the Aussies instead at the better than 10:1 odds offered on them!

[1] On the other hand, most Kiwi’s like a decent match-up as well as actually winning, so it’s been noted with some dismay that Christchurch fans can’t really be bothered going down to JadeAMI Stadium these days unless it’s, say, vs Auckland or Otago, or a Test match.

[2] And every time they have to deny that they choked, and talk about how it was just bad luck, the ref, or the other team played a blinder, or whatever.

Update: Well, so much for that. Knocked out by the French in the Quarter Finals! Just goes to show nothing is ever a sure thing. I guess the good news is that apart from a few inevitable whingers, the team, coach, and most the country took it on the chin. Sure, the ref had a bad game, but so did the All Blacks, they should have been winning by enough that poor ref calls wouldn’t matter. It helped that the Aussies got knocked out as well. Ah well, like Henry said, that’s sport. At least rugby is no longer distracting me from work! Could barely give a toss who wins it at this stage.