Well, I reckon only South Africa and New Zealand (and Fiji, Tonga, and Western Samoa - but they don't want World Cups as much as a pair of their own boots) are the only Union forces where that code is culturally and politically this potent. And even in South Africa, the vast majority of the black population prefer their balls round (when I lived there in the late sixties, rugby was perceived much as Afrikaans was: an emblem of the ruling group).
That and the little facts that (a) whenever they show the strength to remain organised in the face of rabid defence, they are the best side in the world by a dozen points, and (b) New Zealand is minute and not very good at other stuff, means that the All Blacks are culturally BIG.
> To resuscitate the rugby discussion on this list - did anyone notice
>the >unprecedented defeat of NZ by the French yesterday? The North now
>faces the >highly unusual prospect of taking the World Cup if Australia
>can't cut it. >Reports here (SA is still smarting after a last minute
>defeat by the >Wallabies)
Australia is a more organised side than New Zealand, as they proved against the equally organised but less resourceful Boks. I'll do a Daniel and predict an easy Wallaby win.
>say that so great is the shock to the collective Kiwi system, that the
>right >wing NZ government may fall in the pending elections, only to be
>replaced by >the other right wing NZ Party formerly known as Labour. Any
>comments from >Kiwi lurkers on this list?
The Kiwi right is the rightest right (ie. neo-classical zealots) in power anywhere. Compared to Shipley, anything is an immediate and empirical improvement. What I'd like to know is if Anderton's left-soc-dem alliance have it in 'em to cause Clarke to bear them in mind when legislating.
Cheers, Rob.