Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

7 people on horse back, dressed in armour, charging around whipping the crowd in to a frenzy.

Is it the horse of the year show? No. It's super 14 rugby in New Zealand!

Luckily we found our way to the correct gate in the stadium because in a country where a 'Nit' is used to catch fish, and 'Tin' is the number between 9 and 11, I wasn't sure if anyone would even have heard of gate E let alone know how to get there.

In the last few weeks we have made a habit of watching the bottom of the league team in their home fixtures. No more of that rubbish for us. We went to see The Canterbury Crusaders, top of the table and containing All Black Stars and last year's Lion Tamers Dan Carter and Richie McCaw. They were playing the ACT Brumbies (4th in the table) who would have fielded a number of Australian internationals had they all either learnt to tackle correctly or been made of more sturdy stuff.

The build up to the game contains what I imagine to be a unique event in the various forms of footballing around the world. 7 people on horse back dressed as crusaders complete with shields and swords charging around the field to get the crowd excited. Grass ruined. Crowd ecstatic. Unfortunately due to the weather the usual procession of Harley Davidson Motorcycles was cancelled. I understand this as I believe it is impossible to ride a Harley on dry tarmac so it certainly should not be attempted on wet grass.

The game was fantastic ending Crusaders 33 ACT Brumbies 3. All the tries we scored in the second half at our end of the field (we were behind the post) and we had a particularly good view as we were in the second row of seats! It may have been freezing cold but it was the best sport we've seen so far this holiday. My footy ranking remains as before but a few more events like that and rugby union may well be pushing proper football in to second place!

We are now life long Crusaders fans. People may think this is glory hunting but I say No! I've supported them for nearly one week now!

Crusaders!...Crusaders!...Crusaders!