Sports in New Zealand

Rugby

One of the most popular sports in the country of New Zealand is rugby. Rugby is an outdoor sport and played using a oblong shaped ball, similar to an American football. Rugby is often associated as part of New Zealand’s identity and has the largest spectator following in the country.

There are two types of team rugby; the Rugby Union and the Rugby League. Both are played using the same type of ball. However, there are differences between the two games, including the league having thirteen players on its teams while the union has fifteen. The other differentiations between the teams include the tackle and its outcome. League players may not challenge possession after making a tackle: play is continued with a play-the-ball or "Scratch". Union players can challenge possession following the tackle and depending on the situation, a ruck or a maul happens. In league, if the team in possession does not score prior to a "set of six" tackles, the team must give up possession. Union does not have a six-tackle rule. Teams can keep the ball for an infinite number of tackles before scoring as long as they keep the ball in their possession.

The All Blacks are New Zealand’s national rugby team and hold a winning record, better than any other team in the world. At the beginning of the international matches, the team traditionally performs a traditional Maori challenge, called a haka. The Air New Zealand Cup was started in 2006 and is a professional competition involving only New Zealand teams. The Super 12 competition involves teams from New Zealand, as well as Australia and South Africa.

Soccer

What Americans refer to as football is what the New Zealanders call soccer. Soccer is not as popular a sport as football is in America. The Wellington Phoenix FC is the professional soccer team in the country. The team plays in the A League which is basically only an Australian competition.

Basketball

New Zealand’s basketball team is known as the Tall Blacks. The team has competed in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, 2002 FIBA World Championship, qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and toured South Africa in 2006. In each competition, they did not win any championships.

The Tall Blacks produced the well-known NBA player, Sean Marks who plays forward for the Phoenix Suns and Kirk Penney, a former University of Wisconsin-Madison star who signed with two-time defending Euroleague champions Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2005.

Netball

Comparable to basketball, netball is primarily played by women and is a popular sport for spectators.

Team Names

Historically, rugby and netball are the dominating team sports in New Zealand. The national teams of other New Zealand sports have names which have been formed with reference to the All Blacks, men’s rugby, and women’s netball, the Silver Ferns. The New Zealand’s badminton team is the Black Cocks; the Australian rules football team is called the Falcons; the women’s basketball team are known as the Tall Ferns; the Black Caps is the team name for men’s cricket and the White Ferns for women’s cricket; the men’s league are the Kiwis and the women’s team are the Kiwi Ferns; men’s soccer team are the All Whites and the women’s team are the SWANZ; and the New Zealand hockey team is known as Ice Black’s for men and Ice Ferns for women.