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Published: September 20th 2011
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Auckland turns green
Both teams scrum down close to the Australian goal line The previous weekend in Dunedin was spent feeling rather hungover, so I left Hastings bright and early on Friday morning for Auckland expecting to be on a ward in A&E, because I would be drinking with the Irish!
However before all the shenanigans of match day began, I had the very difficult task of waking up early to contend with, as my coach to Auckland departed just after 7. In what was the longest journey so far (9 hours), we stopped in Taupo, which despite its tranquil lake and stunning hillside, looked like Blackpool minus the drunk Northerners. It was there we picked up Gav and Mike, an Irishman and a Welshman who were following their nations matches around New Zealand. Clearly they were going to struggle to be at the Welsh match in Hamilton the day after the Ireland game!
We finally made it into Auckland under the enormous presence of the Sky Tower- the most recognisable landmark in the city, and as a result of being held up in rush hour traffic, had valuable drinking time to catch up on. It was a short walk to the hostel, which wasn't the most modern of places, very dated, but was within short walking distance of Queens Street, the main precinct and the hub of activity in Auckland. I arranged to meet up with my friend Ben, who is in the country on a years work placement scheme, and we headed down to Party Central- a place for rugby fans to congregate, get bladdered and watch the games on a big screen. As we arrived, the atmosphere was building in anticipation of the All Blacks game, so instead of being charged a fortune for a beer and being squished in like sardines, we migrated to a bar near to the quay to catch-up and watch the game in relative comfort.
The city was a sea of green and gold on match day, as both Irish and Australian fans drank together, remeniscing about past matches and discussing their predictions for the game ahead. I had arranged to meet up with Gav and Mike, whom I had met on the bus the day before, and have a few drinks before walking to the stadium later that evening. A few drinks is a bit of an understatement, as it turned out to be a mammoth pub crawl all the way to Eden Park...only 4kms away! So after stopping every 20 minutes or so to top ourselves up with beer, we arrived at the stadium to a chant of 'Aussie Aussie Aussie...oi oi oi' and the more dignified 'Fields of Athenry'.
The view from my seat was fantastic, directly behind the goal in the lower tier and I was lucky enough to have a great view of the Australians going through some last minute scrummage drills, line-outs and kicking practice. Everybody in the stand had fun trying to catch the ball as James O'Connor, Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper practised their place kicking.
As the players ran out of the tunnel to begin the game, I realised just how many Irish supporters there were. The capacity of the stadium is 60,000, and at least 55,000 were supporting Ireland, most of them Kiwis decked out in green.
The game was magnificent, miles better than the previous weekend in Dunedin, as Ireland completely dominated the Aussies. It was really interesting to see how quickly the Irish back-row closed down Quade Cooper and the Australian midfield, not allowing them any space or time. The combination of that and the superiority of the Irish scrum was a match winning combination as they overcame the opposition 15-6, cue a shaking stadium and celebrations that would go on long into the night...and morning.
The post-match festivities were mega! Partying with a bunch of Irishman is definitely one of the highlights of this trip so far, because they really know how to have a good time! Amazingly I didn't have to pay for many drinks, as many of them (mainly drunk) felt flush and bought drinks for pretty much anybody in the pub or club that they were in. It was 5.30 in the morning when I finally got back to the hostel, and with a spinning head crashed out and didn't re-emerge until 4.30 that afternoon- plenty of time to grab a Burger King and watch the England game (big mistake, wish I had slept a bit longer!).
Luckily I had recovered sufficiently the following morning to make it on time to the airport and catch my plane back to Hastings, still reminiscing over how amazing the weekend had been.
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