Black, White and Ferns: What's the Deal With Kiwi Sports?

I don't pretend to know everything about sports. But since coming here, I feel like my eyes have been opened to some of the problems American sports have that don't belong on or off the fields, courts, courses, etc.

Before I tell you about the problems I'm seeing, I want to explain how sports work here.

For those who don't know anything about rugby, or don't know a lot, let's break it down.

In rugby, there are two types: league and union. Here, we're talking about union. Under the category of union, there's national, Super Rugby, provincial, and club.

Club would be the smaller scale, which is like the county/multi-town team. Then, if you're good, you would move up and after a bit of work, you might make the provincial team. That might be comparable to playing for your state. Then, if you're really good, from the provincial team, you can make it onto a Super Rugby team. This is still like playing on a provincial team, but like an All-Star team that plays internationally. And then, the best of the best from the nation will be selected for the national team.

There is a good chance that they will play together to represent their nation, which might encourage athletes to show a lot of respect for their opponents as well as their colleagues. I doubt that's the only  reason, but I'm sure it has something to do with it.

Some people might say that you see this all over the world. I disagree, if only because you don't see it at this level.

In New Zealand, there is an incredible amount of national pride in sports. To explain this better, let's look at the names of New Zealand sports teams.

Everyone knows the All Blacks, or at least most people have heard the name. The All Blacks is New Zealand's men's national rugby union team. They win a lot. They've won the Rugby World Cup three times (1987, 2011, 2015), which is more than any other national team, which is probably why you usually see them ranked number one in the world.

But the names of the other sports teams, both women and men, have a similar ring to them.

Just to make it fun, I'm going to put the names alone below and let you guess which name goes with which sport. (Answers will be at the bottom of this post.)

• All Blacks

  

  The silver fern is the national symbol of New Zealand.
  It is on every uniform of New Zealand national athletes
  in some form or another.

• Black Ferns
• Tall Blacks
• Tall Ferns
• Iron Blacks
• Silver Ferns
• Black Sticks
• Wheel Blacks
• Black Caps
• White Ferns
• Kiwis
• Kiwi Ferns
• Black Sox
• White Sox
• All Whites
• Football Ferns
• Ice Blacks
• Ice Fernz

They all kindof flow together, don't they?

The names create a sense of unity. The national symbol of New Zealand is the silver fern, and the colors are black and white. This is true across all national sports teams here.

But back to rugby.

At the end of each game, whether it's the national team or the club team, the captain of each side, win or lose, will say a few words. And it's always classy. They don't talk trash about the other team or blame the referees for what went wrong. They say what went well and what they'll work on in the future and move on. In many cases, the losing team will even be complimentary of the winning team.

You just don't see that very often in America.

And when an athlete is being honored for how many games he/she has played (sometimes 100, occasionally 200), the other team participates in recognizing the player because they understand what an accomplishment it is.

They're incredibly respectful.

The captains speaking after the games is not restricted to rugby. You can see this happen after netball, cricket, soccer, even basketball.

Their respect spreads beyond the field, court or pitch. It speaks to the pride athletes have in their nation and how their actions reflect on that nation.

That's something I think is severely lacking in American sports. I genuinely feel like many American athletes don't think about how their actions and their speech reflect on the country they represent. You can see that at promotional events, during sporting events, and on social media, athletes talking about the poor officiating, the weaknesses of their opponents, and bringing up personal matters that have no place in sports.

You just don't see that here. There's just a different level of class.

That being said, I still love my Cats and my favorite American athletes. Classiness is something I've always held important in determining who I root for (Hello, The King of Class, Phil Mickelson). But others might learn a think or two from athletes here.

I like to think that if more New Zealanders were put on American screens, they might rub off.

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Below, you'll find the sports matched to the team names.

Sport	Men	Women
Rugby Union	All Blacks	Black Ferns
Basketball	Tall Blacks	Tall Ferns
American Football	Iron Blacks	XXXXXXXXX
Netball	XXXXXXXXX	Silver Ferns
Field Hockey	Black Sticks	Black Sticks
Wheelchair Rugby	Wheel Blacks	Wheel Blacks
Cricket	Black Caps	White Ferns
Rugby League	Kiwis	Kiwi Ferns
Softball	Black Sox	White Sox
Football/Soccer	All Whites	Football Ferns
Ice Hockey	Ice Blacks	Ice Fernz