All right, so it's not the All Blacks versus Australia for the Bledisloe Cup. That comes later tonight. It's not even Super 15 (though it can be "super"). But it is the Heartland Championship - and that's what counts in rugby circles around these parts.

I have been enjoying a book by Bill Bryson called The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid in which he tells of his life as a child of the 1950s in Des Moines, US, capturing the giddy era of the post-war boom in America.

No one enjoys watching the All Blacks beat the Wallabies probably more than me, although over the years it has gotten to the stage that I am starting to have sympathy for our long-suffering rivals.

Well, it's getting close now - the opening night of Repertory's The Importance of Being Earnest is this Friday night.