Our own reflection often takes the biggest toll (Intronaut)

My friend CJ sent me a link to this great video



This scene was replicated in our little corner of the sandpit last week as we gathered to watch the final.

You can tell by the facial expressions that to NZers this was way more than just a game we wouldn't mind winning.

I don't think there is any other country on earth where the national psyche is so closely aligned to the national sport.

England? The football tribes are very localised. When I went to Highbury to watch Arsenal play I was with my north London brethren. Just across the north London road (literally) are the hated Spurs supporters. They are clearly NOT my brethren.

When the English national team plays it temporarily unites all the factions but never gets rid of them completely and the team may win or lose without damaging the national psyche. They haven't won the world cup since 1966 (their only triumph). It's no big deal to them. There are no anguished cries of chokers in the international press.

Scotland? Spain? The above holds true times 2.

Brazil may be close to us. But they are a fun loving crowd who will lick their wounds if they lose (they don't lose often - five world cups tells us they are the best footballing country on earth and they know it). And, like us, the Brazilian national team has to win well. A close win without Brazilian flair is an embarrassment to them.

New Zealanders stand alone.

The All Blacks are not only the current Rugby World Cup champions. The ABs are also the IRB's current Team of the Year, the leading points scorers of all time and the only international rugby team with a record winning margin against every test nation they have ever played. Argentina, Ireland and Scotland have never beaten us! The All Blacks have held the top ranking in the world for longer than all other countries combined and in over 100 years only five of the top twenty ranked test rugby nations have ever beaten New Zealand.

But still if we don't wallop an opposition, or if we lose in the knock out matches of a Rugby World Cup we are called 'chokers'.

Like the terrible NZ sacrifice at Gallipoli in World War One, the All Blacks' performances help define us as a people.

The game suits our mentality and national psyche. We are a country founded on the idea of the rugged individual, who, through the tyranny of distance and isolation, looks inward for its heroes. The Maori dimension adds the warrior archetype. We persevere. 'Pinetree' Meads once played a test match with a broken arm.

If you're a kiwi kid you usually start off life playing rugby. When I was a kid I used to say that I wanted to kick a ball like Don Clarke. At primary school I played rugby along with anything else that was going. As football had got its hooks in me when I was four years old I was never going to change codes but I still played rugby for Royal Oak Primary.

Some of the above may help explain why we looked haunted by loss in the last 30 minutes of the world cup. Look at the video again. That's why we felt sick in our stomachs and couldn't bear the thought of losing. Although we loved the win, that's why we didn't even feel great with the score line of eight/seven, or that the French outplayed us in the second half.

All that is fading to memory now though. Jade tells me that the euphoria is over less than a week after we became world champions for a second time.

For New Zealanders the potential gloom was lifted with the win and we now equal Australia and South Africa with two championships. But still we will ache with expectation in four year's time in England when we go for a third.

At least we've buried the 'chokers' tag and those stoopid t-shirts on display before the cup can be chucked in the bin.

Love and peace - Wozza

You shall not pass (Gandalf)

In the spirit of Robert Nivell (Ils ne passeront pas/On ne passe pas), Dolores Ibárruri Gómez (¡No pasarán!) and Gandalf the Grey - the All Blacks would not budge today.

It was really, really tense and it was brutal to watch as the ABs battled to fight the quick-sand that the French put us in after half time.

Jacky and I joined up with some workmates at the Al Ain golf club (having got time off work from our respective schools to watch the final) and we agonised for 80 minutes and hoped and prayed that the French wouldn't take it away from us again.

A loss was unthinkable. The whole of Nu Zild would have been riddled with depression for another four, long years.

As we watched the French team turn into men possessed (a few of them even resembled the Balrog), we all wondered if the heights the team reached against the Wallabies in the previous game meant we had nothing left in the tank.

In the end our dread of losing transferred itself into a staunch kiwi resolve - our defense was immense against wave after wave of French attack. But still...the nagging doubts...it seemed we may not hang on. It seemed that we were again destined to lose to the dastardly French team in the dying moments.

I can recall a couple of times that I've wanted to win a game so much that it makes my stomach churn and my pulse race. This was the latest example.

In fact, it turned out to be quite special day elsewhere as well. Arsenal beat Stoke 3 - 1 and Manchester City humiliated and destroyed  that damned United 6 - 1. Ouch! But it's early days in the premiership. A lot can and will happen before May next year.

That's for another time - it's the men in black that created so much pride in us kiwis in a far flung land. For the next four years we are the champions of the rugby world. Fantastic!

Love and peace - Wozza

The good guys dress in black, remember that (Will Smith)

The All Blacks have just beaten the wallabies 20 - 6 at fortress Eden Park.

That result means a repeat of the 1987 Rugby World Cup final (a match up I predicted in a company competition before the first game of this year's version).

Our internet crashed at school so Jacky had to ring me every time there was a score. It actually made the whole thing really exciting and during the second half when the All Blacks were up 20 - 6 I didn't want to hear the phone ring (and it didn't until the final whistle).

I can't wait to watch a repeat of this game on TV tonight. In fact I think I could watch this game over and over again.

Arsenal play Sunderland this afternoon to make for a complete day (but I joked with Christine Ryan that I'd trade the Arsenal result for an All Blacks win so...)

Love and Peace - Wozza (in all black)