Rugby World Cup fever is sweeping the nation as we get into the 2019 tournament. Here’s what you need to know to survive the full-noise six weeks of sport.
The mighty All Blacks are gunning for a three-peat at this year’s Rugby World Cup (RWC). They won the Webb Ellis Cup in 2011 (on home soil no less!), they took it home from England four years later, and now we’re crossing our fingers that they’ll bring it home from Japan.
The opening ceremony and match for the RWC kicks off at 10:45pm on September 20 (NZ time) at Tokyo Stadium – the same venue Japan hosted the All Blacks in last year. From there, the six-week tournament will see the All Blacks touch down in Yokohama, Oita City, Tokyo and Toyota – and that’s just for the pool games!
There are various ways to watch the games. A selection of free matches will air on TVNZ 1 and Spark Sport’s free-to-air accounts (some of which will have a one-hour delay). If you fancy tuning into all 48 games live, you’ll have to buy Spark Sport’s Rugby World Cup Pass and stream it on your device of choice. If you don’t fancy the delay and don’t want to purchase a pass, you can still head out into the streets where a number of pubs across town will be airing the games, which conveniently go down in the evening, our time.
Here in New Zealand we assume everyone was raised on the rugby field – or at least had a sibling who was – but there’s no shame in never having picked up the game’s finer details. Rugby rules can be a mystery even to the biggest rugby fans, but here are the basics. Each team has 15 players and a game is played out in two 40-minute halves. Players can kick and carry the ball, but must never throw it forward. Points are scored by tries (touchdown, 5 points), conversions (tries can be converted by kicking the ball between the goal posts, 2 points), penalties (3 points) and drop goals (ball is kicked between goal posts, 3 points). Infractions usually result in a scrum, where the forwards bunch together and try to take possession of the ball.
When it comes to star players worth noting – for when you’re throwing your weight around in the living-room commentary – you’ve got star first five-eighth Beauden Barrett, reliable lock Sam Whitelock, speedy try-scorer Rieko Ioane, the eternally dynamic Richie Mo’unga and All Blacks captain/certified legend Kieran Read . Then there’s rising star Jack Goodhue, who studied at Lincoln University and cut his teeth playing for Canterbury, the New Zealand U20 Sevens team and later on, the Crusaders.
With all of that information tucked away in your back pocket, you’re just about ready to go! All you need now is a sweet-as jersey, the essential fixtures and some ideas on how to pass the time if you really aren’t a rugby fan...
Lock these key fixtures into your calendar to make sure you never miss an important match.
The All Blacks are calling Pool B home this time around, along with the powerful South African Springboks. The cheeky Aussies are in Pool D, the French heartbreakers are in Pool C and host nation Japan are in Pool A. Here’s when the big pool games are going down.
NZ v. South Africa 9:45pm on Saturday September 21
Ireland v. Scotland 7:45pm on Sunday September 22
Australia v. Wales 8:45pm on Sunday September 29
NZ v. Canada 11:15pm on Wednesday October 2
NZ v. Namibia 5:45pm on Sunday October 6
NZ v. Italy 5:45pm on Saturday October 12
England v. France 9:15pm on Saturday October 12
Quarter- and semi-finals are determined by whether or not a team wins or is the runner-up in their pool. These games will take place on October 19, 20, 26 and 27. The grand final is scheduled for 10pm on Saturday November 2 at International Stadium Yokohama.
Keep up with the play and suss yourself some of the limited edition RWC merch.
If you’re a sucker for a bit of limited edition merch, now’s the time to buy. At a local level, Champions of the World has you sorted with RWC All Blacks jerseys ($150 – $200), pins ($15.95) and rugby balls ($49 – $59). Adidas NZ – the creators of the jerseys – have them too, as well as an assortment of classic ABs merch – scarves ($45), zip-up jackets ($100 – $160) and the like.
If – heaven forbid – you support one of the other 19 teams, the official RWC store has your back. The online store has supporter T-shirts and/or replica jerseys available for all 20 teams and limited edition accessories galore. The slick website allows you to shop by country, and they’ve even got some rad supporters T-shirts and jerseys with both English and Japanese text across the front. They’ve got a bit of kit for every budget, starting with $28 supporter caps and $48 supporter T-shirts, running right through to $200 Test jerseys.
Craig Shaw from Harvey Norman Commercial looks at the options for upgrading your TV for the Rugby World Cup.
The TV market has been changing a lot recently, both in technology and price. New types of screens with organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels and ultra-high definition (UHD, or 4K) are replacing the 1080p standard we've become used to.
TV resolution options used to be a choice between 720p (1,280 by 720 resolution, or just under 1 million pixels) and 1080p (just over 2 million pixels). Then it moved on to 1080p versus Ultra HD, or 4K (8 million pixels). Now 4K has become the standard for medium-sized and larger televisions from every major manufacturer, and we also have TVs with 8K resolution. The higher-resolution 4K TVs no longer command a huge premium, and you can find a 65-inch 4K TV for under $1,500 if you are quick.
Don't worry about 8K for now. These aren't going to be affordable for most consumers for several years yet. The footy will look amazing on them though – 8K has 32 million pixels, four times as many as 4K.
Nearly all 4K TVs have connected features that let you stream 4K content and most modern TVs (2017 and 2018) will let you use the Spark app for the Rugby World Cup.
OR YOU CAN ...
If you’re not much of a rugby fan, that’s OK. Dive head first into our list of ways to spend your free time now that your loved ones are all glued to the telly.
- Learn to cook like Yotam Ottolenghi.
- Read The Luminaries (finally).
- Set up a Bumble BFF profile. Make it clear in your bio that you’re specifically seeking friends who also don’t care about sport.
- Meditate for exactly 80 minutes.
- Head out to wine bars Not Without You and Kin for a TV-free gals’ night out – you might even have the place to yourself!
- Host a Keanu Reeves movie marathon for one.
- Throw yourself into a 30-day yoga challenge.
- Binge-watch Sex and the City, Derry Girls and The Bold Type – all in their enirety – while soaking in Korean face masks.