Sunday - the second semifinal

Oh well, 1987 redux.  Rather than commiserating, let's instead laud the All Blacks for a passionate and committed performance last night.  Every member of their team played as though this was their last game on earth and they deserved the victory against a Wallabies side that seemed to have lost its reserves of determination and direction.  It was also good to see that the match was decided by a team winning it rather than a team losing it, as was the case with the other semi final.  So we fly up to Auckland next Saturday to see the All Blacks play Les Bleus on Sunday and on Friday night the Wallabies take on Wales in the match that no one wants to play - the bronze playoff.

Personally, I don't understand why the bronze playoff is necessary.  I'm sure that both Wales and Australia would rather be on the plane heading home and focusing on the future than rehashing the end of of a failed campaign.  And, let's be honest, one of the hardest rugby trivia questions is to name who came third and fourth in all of the World Cups - that should give some indication of the value of the playoff.

So we had a bit of a late start following Saturday night.  As the somewhat unreliable meteorological service weather forecast said there would be rain later (there is always rain later, the only question is how much later?) we went down to Tomahawk Beach in Ocean Grove for a walk to blow away the cobwebs.  The beach is about a kilometre or so long, a pleasant walk and is yet another of one of Dunedins undiscovered gems. The basalt headlands are reminiscent of the Antrim coastline in Ireland and the only people we met were a few dog owners performing their labour of love.

Tomahawk Beach looking east, Sunday 10 am

Tomahawk Beach looking
west to Lawyers Head

Rocky islands just off Tomahawk beach to the southeast

We finished our walk in blazing sunshine and hunted around for a coffee shop, but found all of our favourite haunts in the city closed for Sunday.  So we headed up to Maori Hill to go back to Delicacy, a cafe we found in the first few days of our sojourn in Dunedin.  However, around the corner from Delicacy is a restaurant and cafe called No7 Balmac.  It was open, so we decided to chance it and went in.

Cardamom creme brulee with orange

Steamed currant pudding

This place was a revelation. The menu was fantastic, the food was delicious, the setting was beautiful and the coffee was good.  It's unpretentious and is great value, they use top class local produce and the service is excellent. Following coffee, tea, three cheese souffle, wood-grilled chicken and Waitaki bacon, steamed currant pudding and cardamom creme brulee, we staggered out and debated the necessity of another beach stroll to walk off lunch.  Despite the internal vague voices of common sense, we instead returned home and blogged our Saturday experiences and vegged out in anticipation of  a tense evening of rugby.

Alien at the gates

Pirates was only sparsely populated when we arrived (especially by Wallabies supporters), but it filled up nicely as kick off time approached (except for Wallabies supporters).  We sat down with the usual jug of Buccaneers (served by Leah, see below) and two cheese rolls and got chatting to the folks around us. The friendship and hospitality of the Pirates members has been one of the greatest joys of the trip.  To cap it off, Adam the club president presented us each with a Pirates polo shirt for us to remember them by.  So a mighty thanks again to Mark T, Adam, Mark H, Leah, Murray, Russell, Harry, Dave C and all the others who gave us such a warm welcome and made our time there such a pleasure.  Hopefully, the Super 15 gods will schedule some Western Force v Highlanders matches so we get a chance to visit again soon (or for them to visit Perth). The Ireland tour of NZ in June may provide an opportunity for a hop across the ditch, if Forsyth Barr stadium is awarded a game.
 

The lovely Leah behind the bar

Harry is very confident of an AB win

Mark and Fi supporting the ABs

The stadium full of expectant All Black fans

Unwobbly Wallaby

 Well, the Wallabies looked wobbly from the kick off and as the game proceeded they were always on the back foot and their game plan seemed limited to kicking the ball away.  Myself, I would have chosen the strategy that worked against NZ in 2003 - keep the ball in hand, absorb the pressure and then build the game on your terms, but it seemed that the plan of the night was territory, not possession.  Why they continued with this when Cory Jane (ably assisted by some near interference from his team mates) was catching and running the ball back superbly and Israel Dagg was returning any kick sent to him with interest escapes me.





The supporters were gracious in victory, and as was said earlier, there was no doubt that the better team won on the night.  So we will have managed to get through the entire RWC 2011 without seeing the Wallabies live.  Maybe they would have won if we had sold our finals tickets and bought tickets to "The Match No One Wants To Play"?  We'll never know now.


We leave you with another view from the hill - a picture of central Dunedin taken on Sunday afternoon showing the two rugby stadiums and the city centre with a clouded Mt Cargill in the background.

Sunday afternoon Dunedin: the old Carisbrook stadium at nine o'clock, the new Forsyth
Barr stadium at one o'clock, and Mt Cargill shrouded in cloud in background