Rugby became a superb training ground for making New Zealanders the territorials of the Empire, which is the really the way we defined ourselves, from about the turn of the century through to 1950 or thereabouts ...– Historian Jock Phillips on rugby and war
In rugby New Zealanders have seen themselves. Like some strange muddy mirror it has reflected what they wanted to see, and sometimes what they did not. Through peace and war, Depression and social revolution, rugby has been a badge of national identity worn often with pride, only occasionally with shame.– Narrator
We feel a warmth of recognition when we watch it far from home, something we were genuinely good at: no cause to cringe. In a land of few festivals it has been a cause to celebrate.– From the Finlay Macdonald-penned the narration
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