Rugby by Matt

 


In the same way football is an important part of American culture, rugby is part of New Zealand's culture. Despite rugby being out of season, with cricket being the predominant sport right now, signs of rugby are everywhere. You go to a sporting goods store and see rugby cleats and rugby jerseys. You go to a clothing store, you see Canterbury, which is a unique rugby brand. Even when you go to the recreation center on campus here at Lincoln University, you see a plethora of rugby balls in the sports bin which you can borrow and play with at your leisure. This is not to mention the staggering number of rugby signs you see just by driving around, even out of season. 

This inescapable energy for the sport may seem obvious for a country known for its historic dominance in the field of rugby, however, for a student playing rugby in the states, it’s quite the culture shock. The realty of a rugby player in the United States is that you meet few people who even know the sport, let alone have played it. From being able to see the New Zealand Rugby team known as The All-Blacks at the North Island Stadium Eden Park to just seeing kids play the sport has truly been one of the best experiences on this study abroad.

Additionally, in my opinion, whether you know rugby or not, one of the most fascinating things about rugby is how it came to prevalence in New Zealand. Being one of the former British colonies and a current member of the British Commonwealth, New Zealand was heavily influenced by British culture. Britain, the birthplace of modern rugby, brought rugby culture over to the islands. However, they could not have anticipated how rapidly it grew in popularity. New Zealand quickly began to dominate in the sport even on the world stage. This is important not only for the history of rugby, but, as guest lecturer Greg Ryan said, "it put New Zealand on the map." People across world became aware of the force that was and still is New Zealand rugby. Having said that, the Irish are ranked at number one right now. In conclusion, go watch some rugby and go Ireland.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Journey Ends by Francesca

Image
                                                                      Our Journey Ends Group Photo outside of the Lincoln University Library                                    And so our journey in New Zealand comes to an end … or does it? Throughout this past month, we have all learned and grown so much. As Dr. Griffiths and Susan warned us back in December, we will not be coming back home the same person we were when we left. Of course, we are returning a little tanner (or sunburned for some) and a lot of us with tattoos or piercings, but it’s not just a physical change. Not only have we learned more about agriculture and sustainability but we have also learned so much about ourselves. Each farmer left us with life lessons and messages that really resonated with us. One of the farmers, Scott McFadden, who we even recommended write a book to house all his inspirational messages, reminded us to “make each day a good day, have a good laugh because you gotta keep yourself going.” And tha
Read more

Today I met Hamish Marr by Erin

Image
Today, we had the pleasure of meeting a farmer named Hamish Marr. Hamish owns and  operates Longfield Marr Farms Ltd. along with his father, Graham Marr, his brother, Stuart Marr, and their families. Hamish and his brother are the fifth generation of the Marr family to operate the farm. Hamish does not believe his children have any interest in continuing the family farm, but he says he has other relatives who would.  Hamish is a very kind man, whose passion for farming is unmistakable. Throughout our visit,  several questions were asked about his farm and he was very eager to answer every single  one. The University of Delaware Study Abroad program has been visiting his farm for so many  years, that he even provided us with a sheet of facts about his farm upon arrival. This sheet included the breakdown of crops on the farm, why he farms the way he does, a bit about his family, and where he’d like to be in the future. Hamish stressed that in order to be successful as a farmer,  you have
Read more

The HUNT

Image
  One of the ways we start each program is with a scavenger hunt designed to take students to places they might want to visit while we are here - local restaurants, the post office, the classroom, the bus stop, the pharmacy, the grocery store, the urgent care, the police station, and more. The trek to town and back is about 2 miles! So Lilly and Jess (our Program Assistants) put the teams together and explained the rules: 1.     Members of each team had to stay connected in some way the entire time they searched for  the 18 locations on the hunt 2.      They had to creatively document (photo or video) that they made it to each location on the hunt 3.      They had to learn enough about each other to introduce them to the rest of the group at the last stop (the faculty directors’ residence)   Despite a few eye rolls (at the staying connected rule), off they went. It took them about an hour and a half but they rolled back in laughing and sharing and with some really creative
Read more