On Saturday I slept in after having a few beers with Mel and my mates at the Union as we often do on a Friday night. There was the usual banter I've come to expect from my Aussie mates. I got "Dingo Deans", "Aussie Robbie" and of course my favourite "we got the Coach the NZRFU rejects". All fun boys until the first Bleddy then its GAME ON! They really think they have the kibosh on us so it will be all the more sweet when we dick them in a few weeks, and if we don't it will have been because they are coached by a Kiwi.
So on Saturday morning after a massive heart-starting fry-up, I donned my All Black jersey for the first time since the debacle of the RWC2007 . It felt good to be back in black and spiritually aligned again. It has been a difficult seven months of soul searching including searching for a new sport to follow. I checked out AFL but they ponce around in tight shorts and and their shirts have no sleeves so how do they hold on in the scrum? I checked out NRL but every 5 tackles they seem to do one of: A) a grubber kick, B) a bomb or C) give it to the other side to play with.....how dumb is it to give away possession like that without a fight? I checked out tennis but there's no teams. I checked out soccer but they're all homos. I checked them all out but nothing is as good as Rrrrrugby. But I digress....
After brekky, Mel forced me to hit the shops but it was a good way to clear the fog in my head because you get lead around from shop to shop day dreaming and you only have to grunt every so often that you like or don't like something or other. Occasionally you have to appear interested to avoid being chastised for not "being there" which of course you're not cause you left most of your brain with the 10 schooners you had the night before. I had my eyes peeled I didn't see any nods, scorn or hear any comments on my All Black jersey. Nothing....all quiet here....perhaps they don't know the All Blacks are playing the WORLD CHAMPIONS tonight?? Surely they know.....surely. Seriously though, shopping sucks big time and only keeps me from other more interesting activities like watching rugby. I was nervously checking my watch as the time approached......4:30pm and we were still out and about! Time for drastic action...out comes the credit card...buy buy buy...to get this over with.
Fortunately we got home in time for the game which of course was setup to record anyway but that's not the point as Jesse tells me - "you gotta watch the game live, even delayed is just wrong." I took his advice and was positioned in front of the Plasma with a hair of the dog in time to see the anthems and kick off.
OK, so the Yarpies came seriously thinking they could win this match. Seems the All Blacks came seriously thinking they were going to win the match too. And we got a great game. One of the best in a long while. Remember the Yarpies are the world champs and their team was pretty much the cup side albiet with a under-done Victor Matfield. But we didn't have Richie either. Both sides were totally committed. We are showing the maturity now that was missing in the RWC. Each possible kick was taken. If the attack wasn't going anywhere we took good options. All Blacks playing like this cannot be beaten.
There were too many performances to single one out. The rucks were positively dangerous with Boers coming in off their feet like Exocet missiles - beautiful to watch, especially because the Mighty All Blacks hit back with the same or better. Of course man-of-the-match Brad Thorn was brilliant (and lucky to avoid the yellow card). I think the early fights were just what the doctor ordered. It set the tone and sent the very clear message that the ABs were not to be messed with tonight.
Well done All Blacks and as I sat there enjoying the match after glow I looked down at the silver fern logo on my chest and remembered the glory years of Sean "Fitzy" Fitzpatrick, Zinzan "zinny" Brook and Frank Bunce.....those were the days and if this team plays like this consistently it will be "these are the days" again.
Finally, satisfaction after seven months of living hell.
Then I watched the Wobbilies play France in a ho-hum performance against lame opposition. Why do they bother sending these teams down here? The only reason Chabal (caveman) was in the team was for marketing purposes. His last first class game was the match we don't mention.
But there was an absolute gem at the end of the night which only a hardened NZ AB supporter would see due to the lateness. The after match comments from Aussie Robbie were priceless. He looked positively scared. He had seen about 20 minutes of the ABs game and said his boys will have to lift two levels to beat them. You bet! Bring them on!
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