It is quite something to be here in Auckland as the Rugby World Cup draws to a close and the host nation finds itself in with a chance to win for the first time since 1987.
The All Blacks are the best team in the world. They hold the number 1 position. Everyone knows they are the best. And yet.....for some reason they find it really difficult to win the matches that underline their global position. This is their first World Cup final in 16 long years. So this is MASSIVE for New Zealand. And it comes at the end of a 13-month period when the country has reeled from the initial earthquake in Christchurch (since when well in excess of 8600 further quakes, and still counting), the Pike River mining disaster (happening, as it did, only months after the Chilean miners were all successfully freed; 2 survivors, 29 fatalities...), and now the grounding of MV Rena near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, and all its environmental and economic fallout. Might I be forgiven for hoping fervently that there will be an All Black victory next Sunday?
Auckland Museum is currently playing host to the Webb Ellis Cup until Sunday, so naturally we have to go and admire it...:
Roy decides it should be on display in the unromantically-named events space, an area normally reserved for corporate customers at specific functions (something Roy is working to change), and which affords commanding views of Auckland city in the round:
I chat to the guard who's assigned to watch the Cup for the next 8 days. He's rostered on his own, a 10am-5pm duty, that allows for no food and drink to pass his lips, nor any 'bathroom breaks'. Roy concludes that's not really a humane assignment and ensures that others are available to ensure constant vigilance. The queues build. Everyone wants to be pictured with the cup. I fancy it could be me lifting it.....
Yeah right....
Later we wander down to the Cloud at Queen's Wharf, one of the key fanzones in the city where it's all happening. The Cloud is a major new events centre in the city:
On the night of the opening fireworks it looked like a purple caterpillar. It is known, however, more prosaically as 'the slug'. Today it is full of people tasting different kinds of New Zealand food and wine, whilst outside the crowds (and visiting cruise ships alongside) enjoy the free music on offer:
(Those just happen to be chefs watching the action, not ice-cream suited officers!)
The atmosphere is buzzing in anticipation of the Wales/France match. Many have come once again dressed to offer full sartorial support to their team:
It turns out to be a controversial game. France scores more points..... You know the rest.
Sunday. The country holds its breath. The All Blacks play their antipodean nemesis, the Wallabies. The injury list has grown depressingly long. After agonising discussion over the state of Dan Carter's (and later Colin Slade's) groin, the past week has been full of Richie McCaw's foot. Will he, won't he? Luckily he does. And they do - win, that is. Phew!
The nation breathes again. After all, they have already beaten the French in the Pool. So, game over.....
Except that the French have beaten them before 'au moment critique'. Nothing is safe. There is another week in which to discuss/agonise/recall. All we know is that by 11 pm 23 October 2011 there will be a result.
For the sake of this small, friendly but feisty nation, our adopted home for now, I hope that they will emerge triumphant, able to hold their heads up again in the world of rugby; able to continue to deal with the ongoing trauma of Christchurch, where everyone has a friend or relative, and where there is no end in sight to the instability and fragility of the land and its occupiers; able to contemplate one of their stunning Bays being despoiled by oil from a ship that should not have been where it was and doing the speed it was doing.....
After that, who knows? What happens when the rugby fever leaves? What takes its place? Watch this space.
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