One month and counting
9th August 2011 by Andrew Matheson, Manila | 4 Comments
Just 31 more sleeps. Rugby fans the world over are counting down to when New Zealand hosts the sporting extravaganza that is the Rugby World Cup.
The tournament is big for New Zealand. Twenty teams, 48 matches in just over six weeks, played from Whangarei in the north to Invercargill in the very south. More than 85,000 visitors are expected, including over 2000 of the world’s media, and the worldwide television audience is estimated at a staggering four billion viewers.
You can still get tickets if you’re planning to catch the action in New Zealand, but hurry as more than one million have been sold already.
I hope that there will be plenty of people watching in the Philippines, given the growing popularity of rugby in this country. UPDATE: Rugby World Cup Ltd has announced that ESPN Star Sports will broadcast all 48 matches in the Philippines. The Philippines New Zealand Business Council is organising an event for the opening match on 9 September, and the Australia New Zealand Chamber of Commerce for the final on 23 October.
Eden Park in Auckland, the venue for many of the matches including the final, passed its dress rehearsal with flying colours in the weekend. The New Zealand/Australia match was a good test of the park’s facilities and transport links, and everyone was pretty happy with the way things went.
Oh, and did I mention the match had a good outcome too?
Good news for rugby fans in the Philippines. Don’t miss the update in the post above about where you can catch the Rugby World Cup action on screen.
rank no#1 NZ love to see them fight !!! to the Phil rugby team a long way to go to achieve a position in world ranking. if their is a chance to a charity event fight NZ vs Phil ?
Danilo
There might well be a Philippines – New Zealand match soon. I was talking to players and the coach of the Philippine Volcanoes at the Rugby World Cup opening (http://blogs.mfat.govt.nz/andrew-matheson/kick-off/), and learnt that the Philippine national team is soon off to the next round of Sevens games in Borneo. If they do well there they’ll qualify for the Hong Kong Sevens, where they could play against New Zealand.
Good luck to the Philippine Volcanoes!
Andrew
Danilo
That Philippines – New Zealand match has just become more likely, with the Volcanoes making it to the Hong Kong Sevens. As Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (a keen rugby fan) said in this article in the Philippine Star (http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=731432&publicationSubCategoryId=68): “while the New Zealand All Blacks were outclassing France at the Rugby World Cup, the Philippine Volcanoes were proving – once again- that they belong in the premier ranks of Asian rugby”.
Andrew