Well I've been a rugby fan pretty much my whole life... My folks owned a sports store growing up so I was fortunate enough to get to go along to a lot of games and sit in box seats, occaisionally with some big names.
I remember when North Harbour Stadium was first built I went to an Auckland vs Harbour game and sat in the Nike Corpbox (who were the main sponsors at that time) and Michael Jones was there. I was an avid supporter of North Harbour in many sports and Auckland was the main enemy so when Jones offered me an Auckland cap I flatly refused it. He even offered to sign it and there was still no way I was interested as I put on my North Harbour cap. I still remember his reaction being of amusement as well as a bit of disbelief at my stubborness. If you're wondering, I do have an autographed Auckland cap from Jones, as he gave it to my dad and told him to pass it on to me. I don't however remember the score of the game! But I'm sure Harbour won... ;)
I now live in Christchurch and support the mighty Crusaders in the Super 14, however when it comes to the Air New Zealand Cup (prev NPC) I've had to make a decision - I still support both Canterbury and Harbour, but when the two play each other I have to back my home team - North Harbour!
Ultimately my team will always be the All Blacks, and if we have to take out 22 of them from the Super 14 for half the season in order to work towards the World Cup then I'm behind it all the way! You only have to look at the standings to see that Kiwi teams are still on top, even without some of our star players for half the season ;)
