It may surprise a few of you, bit most of you know, I am a bit of a sports nut. There have been days when I could feign ignorance in a game of Trivial Pursuit when Sports category was mentioned, but alas now I can not not pull that off. So, as I travel I will attempt to bring you my understanding of regional sports and fans.

This first update focuses on Oceania, covering my first four stops – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. To put is simply folks in that part of Southern Hemisphere LOVE their sports. They get as passionate as SEC fans and those in the Bronx or Wrigley. My time in New Zealand happened to coincide with the World Cup of Rugby taking place in that island nation. And everywhere you went All Blacks (NZ National Rugby team) gear was on display.

But let me start at the beginning. The first billboard I saw just outside the airport was for the Fijian Netball team. So of course I pondered, what is that? Well, netball is popular in Oceania. It is a women’s sport, similar to basketball, minus the backboard on the hoop. The major difference though is that players can not move around freely but can only stay in there zones, so instead of running the floor there is a lot of passing. Shooting is of course a bit more complicated since you have to put it directly into the hoop.

As my journey continued I met many avid sports fans in every country. They talked about soccer, swimming, cricket (a sport where you actually take a tea break during the match and the “test” match can last for days). But the #1 sports topic all over Oceania is Footy (or Footie).

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Depending on where you are Footy means completely different things. It pretty much never refers to soccer (though a new friend in Melbourne tried to convince me that it should) or American football (known as Gridiron – I actually like the name). It refers to Rugby or Aussie Rules Football. But wait, there is more! Term Rugby refers to two basically different games. There is Rugby League and Rugby Union. They sound similar, but the rules and the styles of play are really not. Before I give some of the breakdown of differences let me explain that the term Footy and its use is largely regional. Kiwis (that would be New Zealanders) love Rugby Union. Even though the NZ Rugby League professional team, the Warriors, made the league finals, hardly anyone noticed. In Melbourne it is all about Aussie Rules. In fact up until a few years ago AFL (Australian Football League) was only based in Victoria. They have no expanded to have several teams outside of the state, but the championship game as well as the league’s loyal followers are all in Victoria. I went to the league playoff game between the Hawthorne (suburb of Melbourne) Hawks and Sydney Swans. Well, the Swans used to be in a different Melbourne suburb and then moved to Sydney. Yet at the game, which took place at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) they had tons of local supporters. Can you imagine that happening in American sports? Anyone from Cleveland ever cheer for the Ravens?

To appreciate Rugby League one needs to travel to Queensland, the Northeastern state of Australia. Sydney is a bit of a melting pot. There are folks who love Union and League and the city has several teams of both in the pro leagues.

Australia is a pretty unique team when it comes to professional sports. If you combine the three highest level pro leagues there are only a small handful of teams that are located outside of the metro areas of Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Can you imagine combining NFL, MLB, and NBA and only have 6-8 teams outside of LA, NY, and Chicago? Australia’s size (very close to continental US) and the population (under 30 million) have forced majority of the population to be concentrated in these metro areas and along the East coast, so the sports follow.

My first introduction to Rugby, and the fandom that comes with it actually happened in Papua New Guinea. I arrived just in time to witness the grandeur of an event that to Rugby (League) fans is bigger than the championship – State of Origin. Basically it is a 3-game series where players are divided into two clubs – the Blue and the Maroons. The division is based on the geographic location of the initial (minor league) player was a part of. The Blues represent clubs that are based in New South Wales and the Maroons represent Queensland. The best equivalent I can think of is NFL guys playing an extremely intense series of three games where alumni of the SEC would take on Big-10/11/12 (this is for my friends who are the fans of the mid-western league that has a hard time with math) alums.

Rugby is a violent game. Tackling is fierce, though rarely are more than 2 men are involved in tackling the runner, three is a big crowd. Rugby League is a very fast pace game with a lot of lateral passing and some precise kicking both punting style (high) and bouncing along the ground. The game pace is harsh. The rule that surprised me the most in Rugby is “make it take it” – as in you keep the ball on offense after you score.

The differences between Rugby League and Union go back to England. Union was the game of prep/private schools so league became the game of more blue collar folks. Union has more bulkier players. The World Cup in New Zealand this year was for Rugby Union. The things many Americans associate with Rugby, especially the scrum, come from Union.

Speaking of Rugby World Cup (RWC), being in NZ during the time of the tournament was amazing. The small nation was ALL-All-Black. They were gracious hosts, many towns and neighborhoods adopting a “second” team to cheer for. But everyone was about the national team. The All-Blacks, with the amazingly intimidating Haka, based on the Maori war dance, have been favorites in almost every RWC since winning the initial one in NZ in 1984. The pressure was on. In Auckland, the day of the Championship match against France, there was a mix if excitement and nervousness. Some folks were seriously afraid of what would happen in NZ would loose. And the game was a nail bitter.

Fans of all footy are passionate and intense. They proudly barrack, support, pull for and support their clubs. In Melbourne, before AFL matches you can see clear colors of teams at the train station as fans arrive from all around Victoria. There are even alleys made by law enforcement to keep them separated. Because of the geographic proximity of most teams, there is rarely a home or a road team.

About the only thing more extreme in Oceania is the love for extreme sports. Surfing, both board and kite, diving, all manner of extreme water sports are alive and well in Australia and New Zealand. At the Whitsunday Islands area I saw the Australia team’s yacht practicing for the next Americas Cup. I did learn that New Zealand is the home of the bungee jump. When I visited Queenstown, my bus made a stop at the famous AJ Hackett Bungee site, an old bridge acquired by the bungee inventors (AJ and his partners) and set up as a first commercial jump site. And before you ask, I did NOT jump.

I hope you enjoyed this little foray into sports. I will do such updates once in a while. But if you are not a sports fan, don’t worry, this blog will not be sponsored by ESPN any time soon.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more.