Still rugby is our established religion, and the All Blacks are its gods. No-one ever questions an all-male AB team, because everyone takes Rugby seriously. Everyone questions an all-male priest-hood, because no-one these days takes the priesthood seriously.
You are quite right there - rugby is almost like a religion here. If you went downtown and asked people what they would rather do on a Sunday, watch a rugby match or attend church, most of them would say 'watch a rugby match'. We see rugby players and matches in the news all the time, but the Church is hardly ever in the news and when it is it's often critical. Sports players are elevated to the status of saints in our community.
Last year, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, was caught speeding at 172 km/h (around 105 mph) so that she could reach Christchurch Airport and fly to Wellington to see a rugby match. The population were suprised at this event, especially since she said she was in the back seat working and didn't realise how fast she was going. Since it was a rugby match she was going to, everyone thought it was ok. But what if she had been speeding to fly to Wellington to assist at a Mass? People would be saying that she shouldn't have been speeding to attend a superstitious, outdated religious service. The majority of NZ would have scoffed at her.
This is absurd. What seems to be better for people? Church, which brings people together, gives them spiritual comfort, and provides people with friends and people who will help them when they are in need, or thirty grown men throwing, kicking and chasing an oddly-shaped ball around a field while people drink alcohol and yell at the top of their voices?
