Me thinks I have rugby on the brain

Well, as anyone who's read either my blog or my wife's blog will know, the Rugby World Cup starts this weekend... it's been 4 long years of waiting, living with George 'little Shit' Gregan's famous sledge '4 more years boys, 4 more years'.

We're favourites again, and I think no one on earth knows better than Kiwi's just how little that matters at the World Cup. I think NZ has been the favourite to win the thing at just about every occasion, but we've only won it once. 1987. 20 years ago. It's been a long time between drinks...

No one I know is predicting an easy tournament, and you'd be daft to. Australia's forte is upsetting everyone's plans just when it hurts most, and the South Africans are in form at last. France (the hosts) will have the home-team advantage, but have been so-so lately, but never discount them. England will find this World Cup a big stretch, they're just not up to par at the moment.

But one thing the World Cup does, more than any other tournament, is bring the best out of a team. And it seems the All Blacks matches are the ones everyone brings their 'A' game to. I guess that's a sign of respect, but it sure has broken our hearts many times too. The 'knockout' stages sure have an apt name.

I am predicting the All Blacks to get to the final, but who they meet is purely a guess. I would say South Africa, a rematch of the 1995 final, and the final score to be 35-12 to the AB's.

But the AB's will get a fright in the semi-final against Australia. But unlike 2003, we'll come out on top. Then it'll be just a case of someone saying to George 'little shit' Gregan, 'All over mate, all over'!

I am personally just downright gratified that Astro is showing the tournament at all! I mean, there must be some soccer games they've had to not show to put it on, and that would have been tough for them! In a soccer mad (but really they're useless at playing it for real) country, I've been rugby starved for the last year, so no one, and I mean no one, can have a go at me for getting a little giddy with this tournament!

As for the Haka (which my beautiful wife continually misspells), I get the chills just watching it. It's a tradition, it's awesome and it's ours. 4 million NZers on earth, and we're NO. 1.