Sunday - The Final Countdown

Vulcan Lane

There was lots of noise in the street during the night (traffic, burger-seeking White Lady customers, nightclub ejectees etc) but Sunday morning broke to an empty eerie quiet disturbed only by the occasional street sweeping machine. Surfacing about 8:30, we staggered off to Cafe Melba in Vulcan Lane to fortify the inner person with a good breakfast and blast ourselves awake with some strong coffee. We worked out our plans for the day and figured from the quarter final experience that we needed to be in the pub by 2 pm at the latest to get a seat. The kickoff was not until 9 pm so it would be a long wait and a good session. However, the first order of the day was to get Fi an All Blacks cape (sorry NZ, but there is no way I could bring myself to wear All Black gear) and to see if we could supplement the recycled sandpaper masquerading as towels in our room with the real thing. So we went off to The Warehouse for supporter flags and two $6 towels.



Kitted out, we decided to investigate the Queens Wharf Fan Zone, the site of the 200,000 person crush on the opening night of the tournament. The area was pleasantly buzzy with lots of people wandering around looking at the exhibits and stage area which was towered over by a P&O cruise ship. There were lots of excited French fans and a "for fun" referee who was red carding people at any opportunity!

French fans with Madamoiselle La Baguette

Referee rewards bad behaviour, ooh la la

Then we waited at the Britomart for the train to Eden Park, arriving at the Kingslander at about 1 pm and settling in at a table close to the window with our pints of Monteiths and Murphys. The atmosphere and the crowd were different today - quiet, more inwardly focused. Admittedly it was a long haul until the 9 pm kick off, but everyone seemed to be in their table sized groups and a lot of the general banter that we had enjoyed the last time was missing. Maybe part of it was that there was much less diversity of jumpers and nationalities on display - nine out of ten people were in All Blacks gear (or at least black in my case as I was wearing my Pirates shirt) and the rest were in blue. I also think that there was a sense of the weight of history pressing on the match - either NZ would get the monkey off their back or France would finally win the trophy.

Then about 3 pm the power went out - not just in the Kingslander but in half the street - packed cafes, restaurants and pubs were powerless. Talk about timing! Fortunately the taps were still dispensing beer and the kitchen staff were cooking by the light of torches! An hour or so later, some power was restored but unfortunately the pub manager subscribed to the theory that nothing encourages people to talk more than playing loud music and he turned the sound system on. And the atmosphere continued to be subdued so we left for Eden Park at about six.

Temporary stand - Eden Park

I hadn't checked the tickets for our seating location so that meant we had to walk to the far diagonal corner of the ground at Gate E and we had also missed out on the chance of a visit to the Clare Inn, but it didn't matter really. House parties were in full swing and there were lots of fans swarming all the entrances. We had to get up to our seats in the temporary stands (the main danger was that low cloud might obscure our view), up about 15 flights of stairs (see right). And all the toilets were at ground level. That certainly set the tone for liquid consumption! So up we went and found our seats. Altitude notwithstanding, we had a great view of the ground. You get a very different impression of the game from up there - you tend to focus more on the overall picture, rather than the individual contests. Fi took some photos of me (see below) for the record to show me wearing black (*shock*). The ground was slowly filling up with the ratio of All Black supporters to Les Bleus supporters at about 4:1. The wind picked up a bit (at least at our altitude) and Fi was really feeling the cold, so I trekked down the stairs to add a NZ RWC2011 scarf to her collection (which now stands at three - Australia, NZ and Georgia) and to stave off my own hypothermia. Despite the brisk and somewhat chilly evening, you couldn't get a hot drink anywhere in the ground. So it was up the stairs again to wait for the match to begin.

A dream come true

Honorary Pirate nurses Final programme

The teams line up for the anthems, packed house

The buzz in the ground grew slowly as the fans filled up the seats. Then came the roar as the teams appeared on the pitch and the anthems were sung and the game started. It was all very exciting but finals are not usually great games from a playing point of view. There is too much at stake and the teams tend to play very conservatively. However, the All Blacks came out of the blocks strongly - not as strongly as against Australia in the semi final, but they definitely took it to the French. The question that was on everyone's mind was would we get a French performance like the quarters (magnificent) or the semis (lacklustre)?



Fifteen minutes into the match, Tony Woodcock scored the first try for the All Blacks - a superbly timed set piece move from a lineout on the French 5 metre line. Weepu failed to convert - the start of a half of kicking that must have left him feeling like Johnny Wilkinson, as the form that had crushed the Wallabies deserted him completely. So both teams soldiered on, with the All Blacks dominant and several penalty kicks were missed. But the French defence stayed strong and the All Blacks could not penetrate the line. Unlike the Wallabies, the French did not kick possession away, but instead held onto the ball at every opportunity. However, the curse of the fly halves continued with both Aaron Cruden (NZ) and Morgan Parra (France) having to be substituted for injuries. The score at half time remained unchanged at 5 - 0 to NZ.


The second half started and the French offended within kicking distance. Steven Donald was given the kicking duties and landed a good penalty. We had a clear sightline down the flight path of that ball and it swerved unnervingly at least three times before suddenly at the last second dipping left between the posts. The crowd roared. The score was now 8 - 0 and the fans sensed that the All Blacks might be about to put the French to the sword. Then the game came alive. The French threw everything against the All Blacks and Dusautoir scored a try against a post. The conversion was slotted and the scores were now 8 - 7. And so it stayed for the rest of the match. For the next 30 minutes, the All Blacks looked nervous and unsure for the first time in the tournament, suddenly they seemed sluggish and tired. The French threw themselves at the black line again and again, but were unable to penetrate and the All Blacks not only defended magnificently, but did not give away a single kickable penalty. Finally the whistle blew for the end of the match and the All Blacks players jumped all over the place in jubilation while the French stood looking dejectedly at the turf.

That magic moment - Richie lifts Bill

Fireworks at Eden Park to celebrate AB victory

It took about fifteen minutes for the groundsmen to instal the presentation podium and during the wait they played some really classic loud pop music over the PA and people sang along. It was a wonderful thing to see the normally pragmatic and restrained New Zealanders jumping around in pure joy with fists pumping in the air yelling out the words to "April Sun in Cuba" by Dragon. When Graham Henry stepped up to be interviewed he literally couldn't hear what he was saying to the Sky TV presenter as the noise from the 60,000-strong crowd was deafening. Then the IRB president and the NZ prime minister John Key stepped up for the medal and cup ceremony and Richie McCaw became the second All Black captain to lift the dark gold William Webb Ellis trophy (known in the Rugby community as "Bill") as fireworks went off around the roofline of the stadium. Israel Dagg was seen rolling around in the white confetti around the podium and the team did a lap of the stadium with the cup to thank their supporters. The atmosphere was a strange mix of utter euphoria and sheer relief and we knew it would be a sleepless night of partying for many proud New Zealanders.







We waited until the stadium celebrations were over and then headed back to Kingsland station to catch the packed train back into town. The quiet reticence that had hung over the fans before the match had evaporated and the match was discussed (and congratulations or commiserations offered as appropriate) as we rolled into Britomart about half past midnight.

The streets were packed and people were partying. We were still wound up from the emotion of the game and thought a drink might be nice, but the chances of getting into any venue selling alcohol were non-existent, so we thought we'd settle for a coffee instead. A 30 minute walk around central Auckland in search of a coffee shop resulted in us finding a Coffee Club about 200 m away from where we started. So we collapsed into some seats and drank a welcome hot chocolate and discussed the match with some other patrons before heading back to Nomads at 2 am.

The sounds of fans celebrating in the streets below were no match for the dearth of sleep the previous night and the events of the superb but emotionally draining cup final day, so we dropped off to sleep with the replay of the cup presentation ceremony playing on the TV. We'd had the full-on experience of a live Cup Final and what a fantastic day it had been for New Zealand! A day we will never forget.