U17 Women's Football

On Saturday I took the opportunity to attend a game of one the more significant sporting tournaments to be held in NZ...the inaugural U17 Women's Football World Cup. And well worth it was.

The NZ girls were playing their second match against Denmark - after narrowly losing 1-0 to Canada in their opening match. And after having 13000 spectators turn up for that game, there was an incredible 12000 turn up for this second match. Amazing numbers when you consider that recent rugby matches haven't been able to pull anything near those numbers. And the girls didn't disappoint.

Considering these girls were under 17, the skill level was very impressive. They may have not had the speed or the weight on some of the shots and passes, but there was a lot of skill on the ball. But most of all, it was enjoyable watching athletes who were playing their game for the love of their sport. There was no theatrics, no show-ponies, no prima donna's. The game was free-flowing and competitive, not based upon constantly-changing and over-complicated rules.

Unfortunately the NZ girls lost the game 2-1, though they were very unlucky (as in their first game), not to tie it up in the frenetic final 10 minutes. The only disappointment was on the final whistle when - as after their first game - most of the NZ team broke down. It wasn't so much the tears that disappointed me - these girls are only 16 after all - but the lack of congratulating of the other team. But again, this probably just reflects the passion these girls had for their sport, something we don't usually see on our rugby fields these days.

So a very enjoyable afternoon of spectating - and I walked away think rugby could learn a lot from this tournament - both in terms of the quality of sport on the field, and also the treatment of the fans (a game played in the afternoon, and tickets only $10). For those of you who bothered to watch the - from all accounts - boring rugby test later that night, you should have switched your TVs on 6 hours earlier.