Vodaphone Warriors vs Canberra Raiders
Mt. Smart Stadium, Auckland New Zealand
May 1, 2010
My first out of the country game! No this is not part of my Fantasy Sports goal but this is still great. Keli and I have been traveling around Australia and New Zealand the past two weeks and the last leg of the trip we have been with our Kiwi friends Carey and Nicole Gillies. They are avid Vodaphone New Zealand Warriors fans and have season tickets to the only professional team on the island so of course we are going to our first NRL (National Rules League) rugby game with them. The team is having a tough season so far, their best players are all injured, but hopefully the home team will show up tonight.
As for the game, NZ had a tough first half. After 40 minutes they were down 16 to 0 after several tries and goals by the Raiders. The team was manhandled by the quicker and bigger Raiders who were lead by Brett Kelly (literally looks like Brock Lesner out there). The second half lead to a couple of good tries by the Warriors which included a fantastic kick across field by James Maloney for Patrick Ah Van to score in the corner with an all out dive. The crowd started to really get into the game and I thought the Warriors really had a chance to pull back and win this one. But several unforced errors (passing the ball forward) lead to give aways to the opponenents which inevitably turned into tries by the Raiders. It was a valiant effort but NZ was outplayed throughout the night and lost 23-16.
Besides the fact that this was my first rugby game, and I was watching the game on the other side of the world, one of the best decisions we made about the game was to spend an extra $10 on the tickets to be able to sit under the roof. Out of no where at the start of the second half a torrential downpour came blasting through the stadium for about 10 minutes which drenched the unsuspecting fans in the endzone. Gotta love island weather!
Notes on the stadium: The first thing I noticed when I walked into the Mt. Smart Stadium is that the layout is almost exactly like the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. Two large grandstands with open end zones (one end zone has a large sloping grassy knoll that will sell out as well when the Warriors are doing well). I also like the fact you can watch the players on the practice field prior to the game, get some great pics of them, and generally get pumped up to watch the action on the field.
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