football is football is football

After finishing up our two week stint on our second farm, puriri flat, we headed north in search of good views and warm enough weather for a little bit of camping. The first stop was a little town on the Bay of Islands named Russell, where we very unceremoniously got completely rained out..

So we took the opportunity to brush up on some of the finer aspects of New Zealand culture, by going to the bar and watching rugby for hours and hours. I don't think either of us really knows the rules of the game quite yet, but we do know that this guy stole Tenny's hair:

As we watched the southern hemisphere's version of the beautiful game we were also soothed to the easy listening sounds of 'Plan B' - http://www.myspace.com/planbduo (their musical skills are thankfully better than their web design skills) who played a variety of cover songs to a faithful fanbase of us and one other lady at the bar. They were really nice though, and didn't get too jealous when we payed more attention to the rugby than them.

After careful analysis I've also discovered the secret of the game, and contrary to popular theories involving 'skill' or 'fitness', I've determined that the class of a rugby team is entirely dependent on the name of its captain. Strange that England won the Rugby World Cup back in 2003? Not if you consider that their captain's name was 'Jonny Wilkinson', or that the 2007 winners South Africa had a captain named 'Paul Roos'. You'd think this would give New Zealand a good chance of winning in 2011 with a captain named 'Mils Miliaina', but I'm afraid my pick has to go to the Aussies, behind... Stirling Mortlock Anyone care to place a wager?