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Sunday 10/10/11
After a huge breakfast come lunch at Crave, a laid back, quirky coffee bar with amazing food, great staff and the Beatle's white album playing in the background, we headed back into town and the fan zone, once more.
The streets were awash with black today and like us, many different nationalities were purchasing AB shirts and adopting honorary AB fan status.
Interestingly, according to The New Zealand Herald, spending has risen during the RWC quarter finals, with foreign tourists opening their wallets and spending $4.7 million between between Friday and Sunday, in Auckland and Wellington. Good news for the NZ economy and an example of how important a major event can be for a country.
One person not availing himself of an AB shirt was Aurelien Rougerie, whom we saw chatting with French fans down by the harbour. Ian shook hands with him and congratulated him on the win!
(Bâtard)
Later at the ground, we would also see three welsh players (Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones and Shane Williams looking slightly the worse for wear and heading for the hospitality area!
We did the fan trail again and stopped off at an Indian restaurant for a curry. The owner was from South India but had family in Manchester and he gave us his life story whilst we tucked into his poppadoms.
Replete, we continued along with the crowd to the ground and took our seats amidst a sea of black, interspersed with the blue and white hoops of Argentina.
Brilliant seats once again, not least for the excellent view of Richie McCaw's wonderful thighs, but also to witness the Haka at close quarters.
Interestingly, the crowd didn't seem to get behind the AB's that much, there was very little chanting in fact, unlike at the England v French game.
They do give their team a hard time though and are quick to criticise their performance. Rugby is after all a religion round these parts and as it says on the heading of the Rugby Herald Newspaper; 'The paper they read in heaven'. God knows what will happen if they lose. Apparently, when they lost to France in the last world cup, domestic violence increased!
It was a definite improvement having the 'recorded' trumpet notes at this game. If you watched the games you'll be familiar with this blast of 'gallic' trumpet notes after which everyone shouts 'YYAAYY'. During the French match, some guy had brought his own trumpet and he'd just about warmed up and got the notes, (but not necessarily in the right order), by the end of the game!
Another good game, well fought and quite moving at the end when Mils Muliaina received his 100th cap.
The first stage of our trip was over and it was time to leave the rugby behind for the time being and move into the second leg of the trip. Bring on the camper-van. This is where the adventure really begins! (and the arguments start)
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