saturday at the rugby...

so i finally went to my first rugby game on saturday. i've seen a lot of super 14 games, guinness premiership games, all blacks tests, 6 nations, you name it - on tv. but this was my first time at the rugby stadium - it's at Eden Park to boot. yay... and it's auckland v. waikato.

eden park is smaller than i imagine it. but the atmosphere was cool. we were surrounded by waikato supporters but thank goodness, none of them had their cowbells with them. i could follow the game better from tv but then again, it's a lot of fun seeing brendon leonard in person (the kid was good), dougie howlett (oh, dougie, you're one handsome man) and troy flavell (and you too, troy :) yep... )

the kickoff - waikato no 9 (also all blacks half back) brendon leonard at bottom right.












that should be troy standing closest to the stand.
he came off the bench in second half. and almost straight away got into scruffles with sione lauaki who is widely thought to have taken troy's place in the world cup squad. i'm not much of lauaki fan but i think we need someone like him in the team when we play a physical team like south africa.

auckland outmuscled the mooloos men, by the way, to stay at the top of the table. canterbury on the other hand also bagged a win against otago but no bonus point this week so they're at no. 2 behind auckland.

i've got another game line up next saturday. canterbury v. wellington (no more tana umaga though...:( his last game in new zealand was this weekend at home in wellington) at jade stadium, oops the AMI Stadium (they renamed it this week - AMI the new sponsor of CRFU) in christchurch. that should be fun too.