Rugby in Canterbury

Meridian Energy, the company for which I work, sponsors Canterbury Rugby Football Union, the local rugby team. As part of the deal, some players will visit the office. Last Wednesday was that time of the year. A few months ago all staff were asked if they would like to participate. Not knowing anything about rugby and not being from Canterbury I decided not to enter, thinking that there would be lots of people wanting to rub shoulders with the players. Unfortunately, as Dan Carter or Richie McCaw would not be coming not many staff members were at all interested and the organisers went ‘begging’ for participants. The ever helpful person that I am, I got talked into this. I was very apprehensive as I would not know any of the players and would not know what to talk about. Luckily the players were very nice and I kept on hearing the same question from them to us: So, how long have you been working here? Anyway, we all know how tedious these sponsor visits are for the players, so their visit was kept short and sweet. We played a few table football matches, whilst chatting and eating pizza. My partner, Hayden Hopgood, and I came 2nd to last, so no prices for us. The winning team and 2nd place players received a voucher for Rebel Sports (a NZ national sport shop chain). Not quite sure who came up with that, considering the rugby players get all their gear paid for! Anyway, after a chat with Casey Laulala, who has actually played a few times in the All Blacks, I had to get back to work.

This was actually quite a nice experience, not in the least as it got me away from my desk for 1.5 hours!