Recreation

RugbyMaking our mark on the sports field

New Zealand is well known as a tough competitior on sports fields around the world. This feature details some of the better known successes in our sporting history.

Rugby

If there’s one sport that Kiwis are best known for, it’s rugby. Despite having been tipped as favourites before, New Zealand has won the Rugby World Cup just once, in 1987.

The New Zealand national women's rugby team, the Black Ferns, have managed to out-do their male counterparts when it comes to winning the silverware. The team won Women's Rugby World Cup for the third consecutive time last year.

Read about the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Softball

There is more to New Zealand than rugby though and the country has produced other champions, such as the New Zealand Black Sox, the men’s softball team.

Golf

Left-handed golfer Bob Charles was just 18 when he won the New Zealand Open as an amatuer in 1954. In 1963 he won the British Open and effectively put New Zealand on the golfing map.

Michael Campbell won the 2005 US Open and the richest prize in golf, the HSBC World Match Play Championship, in the same year.

America's Cup

In 1995, the New Zealand team Black Magic won the Louis Vuitton Cup, thus qualifying for the prestigious America’s Cup. Led by Kiwi yachting legend Sir Peter Blake and with Russell Coutts on the helm, the New Zealand yacht defeated America’s Cup holder Young America 5-0. In 2000, Team New Zealand, this time led by Russell Coutts, defended its title with another clean sweep. However, following the successful defence, Coutts and several other team mates left Team New Zealand to join the Swiss team Alinghi. The young and relatively inexperienced Team New Zealand was no match for Alinghi in 2003 and lost the cup.

Netball

The Silver Ferns are another successful New Zealand sporting team, winning the gold medal at the 2010 Indian Commonwealth Games, beating Australia in an epic final. They also won Commonwealth gold in 2006.

Sporting New Zealander resources

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