New Zealand's National Sport

The national sport of New Zealand is Rugby Union, they play other sports such as netball and cricket, however, they have recently won the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand for the first time in 24 years. They had been knocked out by France twice. Rugby is a physical and sometimes violent game, it is played by two teams with 15 players per team, there are 8 forwards and 7 backs per team. The sport originated from England, when during a soccer game man called William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it. The World Cup Trophy is now named after him. It soon spread to New Zealand and the Southern Hemisphere. In the year 1888 a British team toured Australia and New Zealand. The Haka, performed by the New Zealand team is a maori war dance thousands of years old, it is performed at the start of every game.

  the haka
rugbyworldcuplive.com.au#


RUGBY HIGHLIGHTS from dave shenton on Vimeo.