DUNEDIN LETTER:THE SUSPICION was that New Zealand would be altogether different in both a World Cup setting and, particularly, springtime. And, thankfully, so it has proved. For some of us, this is a seventh visit here since the seven-match A/Development tour in 1997 under the less than harmonious coach/manager duo of Brian Ashton and Pa Whelan, which also took in an end-of-tour match in Apia, Samoa. Not without good reason, it became subsequently known as the Arrested Development tour.
There have since been Irish sojourns to the Land of the Long White Cloud in 2002, ’06, ’08 and ’10, not forgetting the Lions tour of 2005. How could one forget? For most of the Irish on that unrelentingly gloomy and disastrous tour under Sir Clive, Speargate et al, there was scarcely a win to write home about. Nor even a positive story, except for a carefree Ryan Jones breezing out as a late replacement, tearing through Otago here in the House of Pain and then munching through a slice of pizza in his post-match press conference. Otherwise, it was seven weeks of unremitting pain culminating in a week of incessant rain for the final dead rubber in Auckland.
What they all had in common though (aside from the defeats) was that they took place around June, ie in New Zealand winter. So having emerged from an unremitting Irish winter, you left the beginnings of Irish summertime for more darkness at teatime and very often ghost towns. Seeing shops close at 2pm or 4pm as several thousand Irish fans walked around Rotorua last Saturday (while the ATMs gradually ran out of cash) was a reminder of a year ago.
The invasion of an estimated 95,000 visitors throughout the tournament has provided plenty of colour and buzz, along with the variety of an Irish itinerary that began in Queenstown, and has since taken in Auckland, New Plymouth, Taupo, Rotorua and now Dunedin.
Just as good has been the sunshine. Plenty of it, since springtime began on September 1st, and longer stretches in the evening. For those who know New Zealand in summer time, like Irish physio Cameron Steele, or team doctor Dr Eanna Falvey (who honeymooned here) there is particular delight in others finally understanding what they have known all along.
Okay, the All Blacks are fairly all-consuming. One memory is of waking up in Auckland on the morning of the Ireland-Australia game to the sound of a haka on the street. For someone else it was the sound of a street face-off between the haka and The Fields of Athenry. You can scarcely find a shop front or an office building without the words “All Blacks” adorning it.
The only true public rival to the All Blacks in the World Cup is, of all things, Rugby League, and more specifically the New Zealand Warriors. Against all odds, they have reached only their second NRL Premiership Grand Final in history, and their first since losing in 2002, at a 70,000-capacity ANZ Stadium in Sydney on Sunday.
Last Saturday night’s thrilling 20-12 win over Melbourne Storm in Auckland (which saw many bars retain a keen following after the preceding win by the All Blacks over France) has set up a meeting with Manly. Curiously, in this time of increased Antipodean antipathy between supporters of the All Blacks and Wallabies (some of the latter reported being spat at and verbally abused by Kiwis on the night Ireland beat Australia in Eden Park), many Australians will seemingly support the Warriors.
This is because Manly are despised by fellow Australians and especially other Sydney rugby league fans. After a clip showing Sydney fans stating they would be rooting for the Warriors, one pundit on Australian Sky News observed that for many league fans in Australia, “every week you go for two teams – your team and the team Manly is playing against”.
Apparently, Manly had a reputation for poaching players from other clubs and effectively buying titles (a Dublin club springs to mind, but they’ve had enough kicking), and though in latter years this policy has been replaced by a greater emphasis on producing their own young players, the inherent hatred of Manly remains.
However, the Big Brother vice-like grip which the IRB and RWC 2011 chiefs have over New Zealand (and which has prompted increased complaints from the tier-one unions who claim a combined loss of €52 million from participating in the tournament) means Sunday’s final cannot be shown on any of the large screens in the various fan zones and such like.
As it’s also the Aussies Rules Grand Final tomorrow, between Collingwood and Geelong, you get an idea what Australian Rugby Union is up against. At least, after this weekend’s final round of pool matches, the injury-bedevilled Wallabies (on a successful goodwill mission to Robbie Deans’ home town of Christchurch in midweek) will have a clear run for a week or more.
As with the Irish squad, for the travelling Irish media corps the constant moving around has also provided variety. You wouldn’t envy the circus that surrounds the English team to begin with, much less after the dwarves and blonde episode. And at least one English journalist has revelled in a roving commission away from the Red Rose fraternity. But nor would you envy them three weeks in Dunedin, or any other one spot. Even one or two French journalists have been taken aback by how much more approachable, relaxed and good-humoured the Irish are compared to four years ago.
Oh, and one final thought. Next summer Ireland play a three-Test-tour. In lovely New Zealand. In, eh, June.
