Few things bring a country together quite like sports. And few sports bring a country together quite like rugby here in New Zealand. This sport, and the national team, have defined culture in New Zealand perhaps more than anything else. They have brought people together, and become a shared point of connection all across the country.

I will admit to not knowing much about rugby as a sport, and even less about rugby as New Zealand’s national sport. But I, like even the most casual sports fan around the globe, have heard of the All Blacks, New Zealand’s national men’s rugby team, and their women’s counterpart, the Black Ferns. And I know that they are beloved here, with Kiwis living and dying (emotionally, obviously) with every match. (Fortunately for those so invested, neither team seems to lose often.)

So when making my plans to visit Auckland, I just knew I had to experience rugby in some form. Sadly, the calendar was not cooperative, with both the men’s and women’s professional leagues here in New Zealand not playing in Auckland during the week I was there, and neither national team playing at all during that time. So while I missed out on my easy preference for being exposed to rugby – watching a match – I was able to get into a place in Auckland’s Sky City called the All Blacks Experience.

Let me be clear: with a price point of $69NZ, I can’t recommend this in place of seeing a rugby match for those who really want a rugby experience. But if you want that as part of your Auckland itinerary and the calendar doesn’t cooperate with you either, this is a fallback plan, and one likely to be very convenient to your downtown hotel.

The All Blacks Experience is more experience than museum. For those expecting to see memorabilia, you’ll be a bit disappointed, although there is a nice collection of jerseys through the eras and a couple of trophies. (More on those in a bit.) What you will get is a series of stories about the All Blacks and the Black Ferns, video interviews with past and current players, and a few interactive games that are fun but don’t have a ton to do with rugby, before finishing at a rather awesome room of rugby skills tests.

Tours begin at the trophy case, where visitors get a replica of the Rugby World Cup trophy from 2015 – the last time the All Blacks won it; the current trophy stays with the current winner – and the actual Bledisloe Cup, given to the winner of New Zealand versus Australia each year. That trophy basically lives in this case, since New Zealand has now won it 22 consecutive times, and leads the all-time series 53 to 12. Ouch!

Over the next couple of rooms, guides offer stories of the All Blacks and Black Ferns. One room offers guests to touch the greenstone that the team all touches before matches; another offers a pretty cool display showing every result for both teams in international play with pins where winning team is represented by color. As expected, there is a lot more black than anything else.

It is here that my guide shares my favorite story from the day, answering the question that is probably on everybody’s mind. Why black, since it’s a color not on the New Zealand flag? As related, the story goes like this. In rugby, there are two positions: forwards, the large bodies who deliver the big tackles, and backs, the smaller and faster players. When New Zealand made their first trip to Europe – by ship back in the day – to play internationally, even their forwards were too fast for the European players. A newspaper story said it was like they were all backs, but made a typo, adding an l and making it “all blacks” instead of all backs. It stuck.

Or so goes the legend, anyway. Even if it isn’t true, I like it.

Opposite the pins display is the beginning of my favorite feature of the All Blacks Experience, a wall that has the name of every player for the All Blacks and Black Ferns in order of appearance. It is classy, and though I don’t know any by name, I can imagine searching for my favorites as that exhibit winds its way through the rooms.

The interactive portion of the All Blacks Experience is fun, but doesn’t have a lot to do with rugby, unfortunately. It includes games like “tap the rugby balls but not the soccer balls,” and I’d have preferred more stories.

After a video on what rugby means to New Zealand – basically everything – it is time to enter a replica of the locker room at Eden Park, the huge rugby stadium here in Auckland. Here we learn that the All Blacks haven’t lost at Eden Park since 1994 – a span of 47 matches as of this writing (though I’ll probably end up cursing that streak by mentioning it and I hope you don’t hold it against me) – and the Black Ferns have never lost there. I am a bit disappointed at the lack of memorabilia here, as I believe it’s a missed opportunity, but a cool video of former and current players talking about what being part of the team means to them is very moving.

And then it’s time to metaphorically take the field with the team. The group enters a huge video area where both the All Blacks and Black Ferns do their Maori dance called the haka. That is cool, and at life-sized, it really does feel like being part of it.

The final room is the best, and includes the chance to try some rugby skills. Passing, kicking, moving around the field, and trivia are all able to be experienced. It should be noted that I miss every kick but put up the second best time of the morning on the running part, so swings and roundabouts, right? Let’s just say that I’m probably not being called up to the team any time soon.

While I’d still have much preferred to attend a match, having a rugby experience in Auckland was a necessity for me to help understand an indelible part of New Zealand’s culture. I’d have loved more memorabilia, or more true rugby-focused activities, but my knowledge went from a true 0 to at least a 1.5, an exponential leap. That’s not nothing, although it is not where I’d like to be.

It is impossible to overstate just how important rugby – and the national teams in particular – is to New Zealand, and I am grateful for the chance to just barely scratch that surface.

Thank you to Tataki Auckland Unlimited for sponsoring my admission to the All Blacks Experience.

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