It's not as bad as it used to be, but up until the last couple of World Cups, the rugby mentality here was sickening - the nation would be in the state of mourning if the All Blacks lost kinda thing...
At my highschool you'd get grief from teachers and other students if you didn't play rugby (unless you were an absolute scholar or in the 1st XI Cricket or Soccer teams).

A friend and I represented our school on a national level in rockclimbing competitions and even though we were among the best it wasn't mainstream enough of a sport to get any sort of respect... guh!
supporting your team is one thing, but stuff like that is pathetic.

I'm fairly cynical and opinionated about certain things relating to NZ, that's just me, so I shall apologise in advance for any NZers I may offend here.