Sport in New Zealand

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Sport in New Zealand largely reflects its British colonial heritage. Some of the most popular sports in New Zealand, namely rugby, cricket and netball, are primarily played in British Commonwealth countries.

New Zealand's most popular sport is rugby union, the national sport. Other popular sports include cricket, soccer and netball (the top ranking female sport by participation); golf, tennis, rowing and a variety of water sports, particularly sailing. Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular. Equestrian sports are highly popular especially with women and participation numbers begin to overhaul rugby and other contact sports in older age groups.

Contents

[edit] Participation rates

Data on participation rates in sport in New Zealand is published by SPARC (Sport and Recreation New Zealand). SPARC's data can be found at:

This data relates to the period 1997 to 2001. Some care needs to be taken when interpreting it. For example, "Top Sports and Physical Activities" above gives Rugby Union as the fifth most popular sport for New Zealand adult men with 137,100 participants, and soccer as twelfth most popular with 83,800. Neither Rugby Union nor Soccer appear in the top fifteen sports for adult women. On the other hand "Participation in Sport" states that 158,100 New Zealand adults participated in Rugby Union in the previous twelve months and 143,300 New Zealand adults participated in soccer; a difference of 60,000.

The top five sports played in clubs by boys aged 5 to 17 are:

  • 17% Soccer
  • 16% Rugby union
  • 14% Swimming
  •   8% Cricket
  •   8% Hockey

The top five sports played in clubs by girls aged 5 to 17 are:

  • 17% Swimming
  • 13% Netball
  • 10% Horse riding
  •   8% Tennis
  •   6% Soccer

The top five sports played by men are:

* Less physical form of rugby

The top five sports played by women are:

  • 11% Netball
  • 10% Tennis
  •   9% Golf
  •   7% Touch football
  •   7% Skiing

[edit] Rugby union

Main article: Rugby union in New Zealand

Rugby union is popular across all sections of New Zealand society and many New Zealanders associate it with their national identity. It has the largest spectator following of all sports in New Zealand. Given its wide following, Rugby union may be said to take the place occupied by soccer in most other countries.

New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks, has the best winning record of any national team in the world. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka, a traditional Māori challenge, at the start of international matches. This practice has been mimicked by several other national teams, notably the national rugby league team and the basketball teams.

Outside test matches, there are three widely followed competitions:

  • The Air New Zealand Cup, created in 2006 as a successor to the National Provincial Championship (NPC), involves only New Zealand teams and occurs mainly during the winter months. It is a fully professional competition, unlike:
  • The Heartland Championship, an amateur competition of lower-level New Zealand teams, also created in 2006 as a successor to the NPC.
  • The Super 12, which has become the Super 14 since 2006, is a more recent competition involving teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

[edit] Rugby league

Main article: Rugby league in New Zealand

Unlike Australia, where both rugby codes are popular, rugby league does not enjoy significant support in New Zealand. It is not nearly as prominent in schools as rugby union. However, the Australian National Rugby League (NRL), in which New Zealand Warriors play, is popular.

[edit] Cricket

Cricket is the highest profile summer sport in New Zealand, which is one of the ten countries that take part in Test match cricket. The national competition is not nearly as widely followed as the case with rugby, but international matches are watched with interest by a large proportion of the population. This parallels the global situation in cricket, whereby the international game is more widely followed than the domestic game in all major cricketing countries. Historically, the national cricket team has not been as successful as the national rugby team. New Zealand played its first test in 1930 but had to wait until 1956 to win its first test. The national team began to have more success in the 1970s and 1980s. New Zealand's most famous cricketer, the fast bowler Richard Hadlee who was the first bowler to take 400 wickets in test cricket, played in this era.

[edit] Netball

Netball is similar to Basketball and is primarily played by women. It has high levels of participation and is popular as a spectator sport.

[edit] Soccer

See also: New Zealand Soccer

Soccer, more generally known as football in other countries, is less popular in New Zealand than in most other countries. The New Zealand national soccer team has qualified for the FIFA World Cup only once, in 1982; it was knocked out in the first round. The country's only professional soccer team, New Zealand Knights FC, plays in the A-League which is otherwise an all-Australian competition.

[edit] Horse racing

Although its popularity has waned in recent years, horse racing (or just racing) is often considered to be one of the three Rs of New Zealand culture (the others being rugby and beer). It is principally associated with gambling. The various cup days in the major cities attract large crowds.

[edit] Olympic Games

The country achieves well on a medals-to-population ratio at the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games (see, for example, New Zealand Olympic medalists and New Zealand at the 2004 Summer Olympics).

New Zealand's most celebrated Olympian is probably middle distance runner Peter Snell, who won three gold medals and broke several world records during the 1960s.

[edit] Motor sport

There are many levels of competitive motors sport series in New Zealand, which are most simply broken down into watersports (hydro-planing, jetski racing and thundercat racing), automobile racing (Club and national level circuit racing and rallying, with some international events, as well as speedway) and finally motorcycle racing (street, circuit and dirt/motocross).

To date, New Zealand has seen one Formula One World Champion, Dennis Hulme, in 1967. Three other New Zealanders have raced at Grand Prix level: Bruce McLaren (four wins), Chris Amon and Howden Ganley. Bruce McLaren founded the hugely successful team that still races under McLaren name.

New Zealand has many drivers currently competing on the world stage: Greg Murphy and Paul Radisich are among several drivers who contest the Australian V8 Supercar Championship, which holds a round in New Zealand each year. Until 2006, this was held at the Pukekohe circuit, with the race moving to Hamilton, New Zealand, where it will be contested on a street circuit.

Rallying is a popular sport at all levels in New Zealand, and hosts rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship and Asia-Pacific Rally Championship each year. A highly competitive national championship is run each year, and some drivers also take part in the Australian Rally Championship, most notably the late Possum Bourne, who was a seven-times Australian Rally Champion.

Over Easter weekend each year, the "Race To The Sky" hillclimb (otherwise known as the "Goldrush" hillclimb) is held in Queenstown, South Island. Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima, Possum Bourne and Rod Millen are all previous winners.

On January 21, 2007, Taupo Motorsport Park hosted the sixth race in the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season.

[edit] America's Cup

Auckland hosted the last two America's Cup regattas (2000 and 2003). In 2000, Team New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they won in 1995 in San Diego, but in 2003 they lost to a team headed by Ernesto Bertarelli of Switzerland whose Alinghi was skippered by Russell Coutts, the expatriate Kiwi who helmed the victorious Black Magic in 1995 and New Zealand in 2000. Coutts and Brad Butterworth, along with several other Team New Zealand members, defected to Bertarelli's Alinghi team, taking with them a wealth of experience that allowed the new team to win the America's Cup on the first challenge. Coutts has since been dismissed from the Alinghi team; he fought a court battle with Bertarelli to allow him to sail in the 2007 America's Cup contest in Spain, but reached a settlement that will keep him out of that contest.

[edit] Equestrian

New Zealand equestrian sportsmen, sportswomen and horses make their mark in the world (Mark Todd was chosen as international "Eventer of the 20th Century").

[edit] Gliding

New Zealand is famous among glider pilots for hosting the 1995 World Gliding Championships at Omarama in North Otago near the centre of the South Island. The Southern Alps are known for the excellent wave soaring conditions. Steve Fossett has recently tried to beat the world gliding altitude record there (see Gliding New Zealand and external links below).

[edit] Orienteering

Orienteering is a popular sport in New Zealand that combines cross-country running with land navigation skills in the woods. Variations of the sport popular in New Zealand include bicycle orienteering, ski orienteering, and rogaines. Orienteering is a popular sport for youth and juniors, and New Zealand regularly sends competitors to both the World Orienteering Championships and the Junior World Orienteering Championships. Orienteering in New Zealand is organized by the New Zealand Orienteering Federation.

[edit] Australian rules football

Main article: Australian rules football in New Zealand

Australian rules football is a fast-growing sport in New Zealand, with programs established in Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato and Wellington. The governing body of footy in New Zealand is the New Zealand AFL.

New Zealand's national side are nicknamed the Falcons and they have been no stranger to success, winning the 2005 International Cup and coming third in 2002.

New Zealand AFL currently has more than 500 senior players and 15,000 juniors. They are regarded as one of the "top three" Aussie Rules nations outside Australia, the others being South Africa and Papua New Guinea.

[edit] New Zealand national teams

[edit] National team colours

New Zealand's national sporting colours are not the colours of its flag, but are black and white (silver). The silver fern is a national emblem worn by New Zealanders representing their country in sport.

[edit] National team names

The national men's rugby team is known as the "All Blacks" rather than the New Zealand rugby team; the national women's netball team is known as the "Silver Ferns". Historically, rugby and netball dominated team sport in New Zealand, and the national teams of other sports have acquired names which have been formed with reference to these two (see list below). The women's rugby team is known as the "Black Ferns", rather than the "All Silvers". Some of these names seem to have arisen as genuine nicknames (e.g. "Tall Blacks", "Wheel Blacks"), and some are neologisms developed as marketing devices (e.g. Black Sticks (hockey), Black Caps (cricket)). New Zealand Badminton temporarily named their teams "Black Cocks" [1]. The men's national soccer team is called the "All Whites" as they play in an all-white strip. At the time the national soccer team was formed, an all-black strip would not have been allowed.

Two notable exceptions to the "All Ferns" naming schema are the Kiwis (men's Rugby League) and SWANZ (women's soccer).

[edit] External links


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