Rugby.

****VIDEOS WILL BE UPLOADED SOON, SO CHECK BACK!****

The Rugby World Cup (And The International Mullet Spotting Competition*) is fully underway.

There's just two weekends left now, the Semi-finals this weekend:

France -Vs- Wales
Australia -Vs- New Zealand

The winners meet in the Final next sunday; the losers in the Bronze Final on saturday.

From this point I just can't bring myself to support either the French or the Welsh, and supporting the Aussies while here in New Zealand will just be awkward. So it's All Blacks all the way!!

The atmosphere here has been fantastic. The opening night was wonderful - for hours before the opening ceremony there were thousands and thousands of people going up and down Queen St (sort of the main street in Auckland). The Tongans and the Samoans have definitely been making the most noise!!

I managed to see three games in total, so I'll upload a few videos and photos from each one.

Here's a video of the welcoming ceremony for the Australia team at Aotea Square in Auckland city centre (apologies for probable shaky video and other people's hands in the way)

video

Thursday 23rd September 2011, 8PM
South Africa -Vs- Namibia Pool D
North Harbour Stadium, Auckland


The tickets for this one were only $40! That's 20 quid! It was great to be in the company of Southern Africans again, though it just left me desperately wanting a nice cold Tafel or Windhoek and to have a decent braai.

Me at the game, wearing my South Africa scarf and a Namibia top. I was being neutral.

"Namibians" (Actually Kiwis in support of Namibia....)

A slightly blurry photo of the match going on (my phone's camera is shit)

South Africa ruled the game completely. Namibia had the ball inside the Springbok's 22 a few times but just couldn't get through their defence.

Final Score: South Africa 87 - 0 Namibia



Saturday 1st October 2011, 8.30PM
England -Vs- Scotland Pool B
Eden Park, Auckland


This was a great experience. The tickets themselves were comparatively expensive at $190 (£95), but my reasoning for paying that much is that I DID once get to see England -Vs- Wales in the Six Nations at Cardiff for free (I'm sure you will have heard the story at some point).

So myself and Tom went to the match, draped in St Georges flags, soaking up the atmosphere - everyone seemed to be in such a great mood, ready for a party almost. Here's a short video to show you what I mean:

That was the queue for the toilets.

People even dressed up for the occasion, though to be honest I'm not sure they were genuine Brits:

Tom with two women dressed up as I don't know what, a Beefeater, a Queen's Guard and a man wearing a kilt and a Margret Thatcher mask (I don't think he knows much about Scotland, or Margret Thatcher)

We got into the stadium to find ourselves surrounded by Scots (Well Kiwis dressed as Scots), who happily took our picture:

The National Anthems being sung:

England

Scotland

Then the game begun - it was enjoyable enough, Scotland were probably the better team overall but then it's about winning isn't it? If the better team won every time Leicester City would be Champions of the Universe by now.

Here's some celebrations from the English after the final whistle:

VIDEO

Yippee!

Final Score: England 16 - 12 Scotland

To celebrate I went to the pub at the bottom of Queen St (just so happens to be the cheapest place in Auckland for Guinness. Dangerous). I don't remember much after that, though I do know I won $80 on the slot machines. The next morning I woke up with an empty wallet and a terrible hangover.




Saturday 8th October 2011, 8.30pm
England -Vs- France Quarter Final
Eden Park, Auckland

Fast forward to saturday; I'd already started work and had moved into a flat (more on that in a separate post), when I got a text message from a Scottish girl I'd met on the previous saturday night. I had absolutely no memory of speaking to her, or saying that I'd be interested in buying a ticket for England -Vs- France in the Quarter Final. We met up in the pub to chat; I told her that I couldn't quite afford it, but I would help her try to get rid of them (she had two for sale).

After meeting I went back to my flat and lazed around for a bit, then went on a bit of a stroll to discover my local area. I very quickly found a pub called the Edinburgh Castle not too far from my flat. Like many pubs here, it has slot machines in, the kind that you'd find in a casino. I won myself $170!! I thought great, that's a weeks rent! So I went left and went to the pub on the end of my street to watch some of the Wales -Vs- Ireland game.

At half time I decided to head back up to the Edinburgh Castle pub, because the beer was much cheaper; I ended up going onto the slot machines again, and roughly just over an hour before kick-off of the England game, I won another $120! So I did some quick thinking, thought what the hell, it's essentially a free ticket! I jumped in a taxi down to Queen St to find this Scottish girl, bought the ticket and jumped on the free bus to the stadium. I got to my seat JUST before the National Anthem!! It was when I was standing singing it loudly that I realised I was surround by mostly French - and a few Scots with French flags. Awkward!

Let's just say it wasn't a great game. England were much better in the second half, though we just couldn't get through the defence to score a second try. England are now out, which is upsetting (even more so because the Welsh are still in it; which brought about some hilarious Facebook posts from some of my Welsh friends - apparently England have won nothing - coming from a Welshman this is nothing short of fucking comical!! Anyway)

Oh well.

Final Score: England 12 - 19 France

So there you go. England are out, Scotland are out, Ireland are out. Wales are through to the semi-finals. The next two weekends are going to be busy - One thing's for sure: Auckland is going to have a party!

I'll do another blog update as soon as possible; to be honest internet in New Zealand has been pretty shocking speed-wise. They've just brought in a new law against internet piracy which could result in  $15,000 fine. This has resulted in fast internet access becoming rarer in order to stop people downloading. Every single Kiwi I have spoken to has said it's an utterly stupid law.

So uploading photos and videos is a bit of a bother.

I might do a couple of article-type posts, who knows? I've got three days off work from Friday so I might rent a car and head up to Coromandel - expect some good pictures soon.

In the mean time you might want to read about Fran's adventures - she's cycling through Europe as we speak, and seems to be having an amazing time! Yes, I know I am in New Zealand but I am so totally jealous of what she's doing. Loving the pictures too.

Ian


*The International Mullet Spotting Competition works like this: You get 5 points for the initial spotting of the Mullet, then up to 5 bonus points for the severity of said Mullet. The competition is going swimmingly; there's a surprising number out and about. I saw a dreadlocked Mullet the other day which was almost enough to win the competition outright!