Baby's First Rugby Game

06 September 2026

Yesterday, I went to my first live rugby game: NZ Warriors vs. the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles at Go Media stadium.

I came into this match having only very basic knowledge of rugby - I've watched highlights on YouTube a couple years ago, watched bits here and there playing on public TVs, and roughly know how the scoring works, but have never watched a full game and don't follow any of the teams, players or matches.

Going into it, I wasn't rooting for any particular team. Living in New Zealand, it's an easy choice to root for the Warriors - being at their home stadium, the majority of the crowd was rooting for them - but having no investment in either team, I was just hoping for an entertaining game.

And an exciting game it was. It was very close, with the Warriors pulling ahead in the first half, then the Sea Eagles making a comeback and overtaking the Warriors on the scoreboard (I saw many Warriors fans get up and leave at this point) but the Wahs managed to close out the match with a 1-point lead.

The atmosphere at the stadium was good. It was a sold-out game - over 26000 people in attendance was the number reported. It was a fun environment, and despite not being a big sports fan myself, I definitely got the appeal of big sports stadium events like these.

The only other live sporting event I have been to is tennis, which has a rather different environment. In tennis, the audience is restricted moving in and out of the stands to during changeovers, and the crowd is to be silent during play. (Although this is changing at some events, most notably this year's US Open).

I suppose there are a number of things that make tennis this way. Tennis is much more individual and intimate compared to a team sport like rugby. There's only one (or two, for doubles) competitor on each side, so players are required to be immensely focussed on the game. The tennis court is also much smaller, any noises or movement in the stands is significantly more noticeable from the court than in a rugby, or football stadium. That said, with a packed stadium cheering, chanting or booing, I would imagine this can be heard perfectly on the field. But it's less of distraction than in a tennis match because the actions of each individual is less important, and there is inherently a lot of movement on the field around each athlete anyway (both their own teammates and opposing team members). And if watching tennis has taught me anything, it's that players draw energy from the crowd, so this would certainly be the case with a rugby team making a run to the try line.

Unsurprisingly, the Sea Eagles received boos from the predominantly Warriors crowd when they scored tries. I'm not familiar enough with rugby to judge the quality of a given play, but when watching tennis, even if the player I'm rooting against wins a point, often they still deserve applause for the athleticism and skill they exhibit to hit certain shots or rallies. I would think the same should be applied to rugby - at the end of the day everyone's here for the love of the sport, and these athletes competing at the top of the game should still be recognised for their efforts.