NZ TOUR DIARY: The Irish squad's arduous journey was lengthened by the security demands of their stopover in Los Angeles. Despite using the same plane to complete the next leg of their trek to Auckland, not only all the passengers but every item of luggage had to be passed through airport security, both arrivals and departures, in a three-hour stopover as part of the pillar-to-post 38-hour ordeal.
However, some of us can eclipse that. Due to the Aer Lingus pilots strike, a detour to Belfast, and a rescheduled British Midlands flight which was then delayed, our plane literally landed next to our connection to Singapore as it prepared to take off, so obliging us to have an overnight stay in a Heathrow hotel. A day later, the 12-hour flight to Singapore was followed by a nine-and-a-half hour flight to Auckland and a connecting flight to Christchurch before a two-hour drive to Timaru.
Bleary-eyed and jet-lagged, the voice of Irish rugby, RTE's Michael Corcoran, the doyen of Irish sports photographers, Billy Stickland, and his fellow "snapper" Matt Browne and yours truly completed a haul of an estimated 65 hours from Monday to Thursday. At least the Ireland squad all flew business class. Such is our employer's generosity and largesse, we had to haul ourselves and our equipment through economy class. Mustn't grumble, of course.
The fear of foot-and-mouth and ensuing tight security is palpable on arrival in New Zealand. One unfortunate Irish supporter understandably didn't declare sports shoes on his entry card but when the used pair appeared on the X-ray screen in Auckland airport, he was promptly fined NZ$200 (€104). "I'm sorry this has to be your first experience of our country," a female official explained, "but as you'll see we're very agriculturally minded in New Zealand."
Irish expats are scattered all over the world, and amongst those who have visited the Ireland camp was Dr Oliver Bourke, brother of former Irish president Mary Robinson, who has his own practice here in Timaru.
Big as the World Cup is, with the All Black international season swinging into action the daily sports leads in seemingly all newspaper coverage here concerns rugby - an All Black squad selection, a training session or even an utterance or two from coach John Mitchell.
New Zealand rugby is certainly well organised: the All Blacks have four successive Saturday Tests before the Tri-Nations, beginning against Italy in Hamilton today; the cream of the second and third divisions of the National Provincial Championship have come together to play games against Bay of Plenty, Italy and Ireland, while the New Zealand Maoris, coached by Matt Te Pou (father of the current Old Crescent coach), are touring Australia. Beaten by Queensland in midweek, they play the New South Wales Waratahs today before a "Test" against the Wallabies next week.
It's all designed to increase the pool of viable All Blacks, with Mitchell admitting that they have identified 45 players as potential contributors to an 18-Test programme between now and the World Cup. "We will not survive with just 22 players," he says. "It's absolutely ludicrous to think that we can achieve that. We're building confidence in a larger group of people."
Rivalling the World Cup in the bars and the big screens of Timaru, and elsewhere in New Zealand the night before last, was an event that not only showed sport and politics mixing, but also highlighted a rugged side to the Kiwis which not even the most publicity-hungry members of Dáil Éireann and their spin doctors would be inclined to emulate.
In a celebrity night of boxing for the Yellow Ribbon charity to combat youth suicide, the leader of the main opposition Nationalist party, Bill English, went three rounds with a fellow 40-year-old, former college friend and blues singer Ted Clarke. English took a fair degree of punishment in losing on points, but despite criticisms of his participation as a pre-election stunt he had been moved to compete in part because his then 15-year-old nephew had committed suicide five years ago after being bullied at school.
"Politicians are all talk, it's time to do something," he said. "This is a lot cleaner than politics, nowhere to run, no spin, no mucking around, just get on with the job." The former All Black and Samoan winger Va'aiga Tuigamala (cousin of heavyweight boxer David Tua) was one of five rugby union players beaten in match-ups with ex-rugby league players. Mark "Crazy Horse" Bourneville recovered from a first-round pummelling to repeatedly floor Inga for a second-round stoppage.
Nah, it would never catch on in Ireland, even if some voters might like it to.
It's A wonder that New Zealand rugby can hang on to its leading lights when the minimum salary for Super 12 players is NZ$65,000 (€33,680) while an All Black contract is worth a basic NZ$85,000 (about €44,041). Granted, the rewards for All Black players go well beyond those figures, as they are as near to royalty hereabouts as makes no difference.
But even the cachet of the silver fern has always struggled against the lure of foreign currency, sterling especially, and the economic difficulties which undermine New Zealand rugby are demonstrated by the current legal case which Ron Cribb has taken against the NZRFU for not paying him an All Black salary for the duration of the international season last year.
New Italy coach John Kirwan takes a weakened side, minus Diego Dominguez and Alessandro Troncon among other stalwarts, into his first match in his new role against an eager All Black outfit today. Kirwan has surprisingly demoted Mauro Bergamasco to the replacements bench in a team featuring two Test debutants (including 18-year-old back-rower Sergio Parisse) and just four of the side which completed the Six Nations campaign against England.
Kirwan has a low profile in this, his homeland, and is seemingly enjoying it. "There were 4,000 at Te Awamutu, watching the All Blacks train, but we had a labrador, and a guy who was walking his labrador."
