Alice's cool opinion

              Rugby World Cup 2011

Rugby. World. Cup. All very important words. All together they come up with the biggest event in New Zealand for decades. The Rugby World Cup. The best place to hold it? Christchurch. But because of safety and of course big earthquake chances, all the games (including the semi final) that were going to be played in Christchurch have moved away.

Since 2006 my family and I have been looking forward to the world cup. In fact we missed the lions V.S All Blacks game 5 years ago because of it. For financial and time reasons, most of the Christchurch citizens cannot make it to the Auckland and Wellington games.

Aftershocks and the damage of the AMI stadium are the reasons why there are no games in Christchurch. Personally I think the All Blacks would be very useful in the event of an earthquake!

In a way it is a good thing that there are no games here in Christchurch because of things like drink-driving, drug-use, and out-of-control parties. Business would be booming in restraunts and hotels with rugby supporters. That would be good because of all the money loss in Christchurch also some people without jobs would be hired for this important event.

Lots of people in my class would be happy if it was in Christchurch because a lot of us love watching rugby live and it would be very exciting to be part of such an important event

My mum is sad that the RWC is not in chch because it drops the chance of her meeting Sonny-Bill Williams. My dad is sad because he loves watching rugby and one of his favourite things to do with us as a family is attend a match. Both my sisters are sad because they think it would be a great experience and they might get to be on T>V

Without the earthquakes or even just having the September earthquake would mean that right as I am writing this (or you are reading this) Christchurch would be surrounded by Irish, French, South African, and many others who were supporting their teams.

In conclusion I am to say that there are a lot of pros and cons to hosting a big sporting event like this. It is far to balanced for me to come to a decision as to whether I m glad of sad. I think we are lucky to hold it in our beautiful country. I would have liked to have seen a game but maybe something bigger might happen soon. I am excited to see how all the teams go and good luck to the All Blacks!

By Alice Sparks 2011-09-13 J