Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of
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@snowy said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
I've been to a few but pretty much any Lions match. Provincial, or test, from when I was a kid, to getting on the piss with the fans later in life.
Those guys travel half way around the world to follow their team and support them whole heartedly, even if they lose. They come for the party more than the match quite often I think, and it makes for a really passionate but cordial atmosphere. The Brit sense of humour with the banter also a lot of fun.
I ended up drinking for hours on a flight back to HKG (I was a passenger) with a bunch of them, one of whom lived minutes from my in laws in Wales and knew my FiL. 2005. Was just a party at the back of the plane. Nobody got stroppy, just good rugby banter (and a lot of beer). May have all been on best behaviour because they knew who I was but I doubt it.
The limited exposure I've had to foreign fans or rugby fans abroad is overwhelmingly positive. There was the French man with tears in his eyes gracious in defeat in 2011, the young Englishmen gracious (and disbelieving) in victory in 2019. And riding the train in Tokyo I remember starting convos with strangers of a number of nationalities all about rugby
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@canefan Far more good fluffybunnies in rugby than actual fluffybunnies.
Had a great day in a corporate box that @gman organised for us in Pretoria. Was a Blues v Bulls match and I wore a Blues jersey. Got told several times that I was brave, but it was just a bit of fun. Being a big bugger probably helped but almost all of them were too. Free beer great spread of food. Awesome day out and the crowd were fantastic. Nearly full house from memory. Only catch was that bloody Liefling song...
Some good days at Ellis park as well and a great sevens tournament in George with @Billy-Webb as well. All great crowds even if I wore my teams colours.
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@snowy said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@canefan Far more good fluffybunnies in rugby than actual fluffybunnies.
Had a great day in a corporate box that @gman organised for us in Pretoria. Was a Blues v Bulls match and I wore a Blues jersey. Got told several times that I was brave, but it was just a bit of fun. Being a big bugger probably helped but almost all of them were too. Free beer great spread of food. Awesome day out and the crowd were fantastic. Nearly full house from memory. Only catch was that bloody Liefling song...
Some good days at Ellis park as well and a great sevens tournament in George with @Billy-Webb as well. All great crowds even if I wore my teams colours.
Yeah. Sounds like my mate that went to Pretoria was being a pussy 😆
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@snowy yeah I've had good times with Lions supporters dating back to 71. Probably best was 77 and revenge for the 71 stain on our record. I was in a temporary stand (like the things you used to have your school phots taken on) on the sideline at EP. When Lawrie Knight scored we all jumped up together and the bloody thing disintegrated.
In general though Kiwi crowds are a bit reserved
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@dogmeat said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@snowy yeah I've had good times with Lions supporters dating back to 71. Probably best was 77 and revenge for the 71 stain on our record. I was in a temporary stand (like the things you used to have your school phots taken on) on the sideline at EP. When Lawrie Knight scored we all jumped up together and the bloody thing disintegrated.
In general though Kiwi crowds are a bit reserved
lol i was right next to that happening once
it was NZ stockcar Nationals in Gisbourne, Barry Hunter got a win, and his entire extended family it seemed were right next to me on the top 2 rows of the "grandstand" they were jumping up and down and carrying on and then suddenly they just weren't there, they were all on the ground 5m below me. Funny but also really dangerous
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@snowy said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@canefan said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
Yeah. Sounds like my mate that went to Pretoria was being a pussy
I was actually welcomed for wearing the jersey.
I had a great night drinking in Tokyo with some Bokke supporters. On the other hand I sat next to some wasted Saffers in a takeaway joint after that game who just went on about how they were going to smash to Poms. But they weren't wrong...
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@mariner4life It was fucking dangerous alright. Scaffolding poles everywhere. Fortunately we were all very 'relaxed'
Then back to the Poe which is where both teams had the after math and then joined the fans in the sorts bar for a few jars. Great night.
@canefan Worst drunken supporters I've ever come across was a bunch of Kiwi's in 2011 at a bar in Takapuna. Boorish, graceless in victory - in the faces of a few French lads who were just having a few quiets to drown their sorrows. I had to tell them to pull their heads in. One of the few positives about being is as old as Methuselah is you can get away with that (generally).
Actually best bunch of fans in a bar was the French that RWC I rented my house out to a bunch of Froggies. Met them at Tabac bar next to TVNZ in Victoria St (now the Brewers Coop) which had become the unofficial French supporters HQ the afternoon of the Pom QF to hand over the keys. The whole place was going off unbelievably - singing, dancing giving shit to the Rosbifs. The place was insane 7 hours before kick off. TVNZ sent a film crew in just to capture the craziness.
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@dogmeat said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@canefan Worst drunken supporters I've ever come across was a bunch of Kiwi's in 2011 at a bar in Takapuna. Boorish, graceless in victory - in the faces of a few French lads who were just having a few quiets to drown their sorrows. I had to tell them to pull their heads in. One of the few positives about being is as old as Methuselah is you can get away with that (generally).
worst fans i have ever come across, hands down, were the pissed up kiwis in Munich in 2007. Pool stages, Aus played immediately beforehand, and i went to the pub with a bunch of guys i knew to watch.
As the Aussie game was finishing the kiwis started rolling in from oktoberfest, already wankered, and carrying on like absolute assholes. Chased most of the aussies out, were being super obnoxious to my mates, and then one of them pointed at me and drawled "and who are you supporting mate?" i was wearing an ABs jersey. What a fucking cockhead. I actually left before the game was finished because i was just getting angrier and angrier. They just treated everyone, patrons, staff, like shit. cockheads
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@victor-meldrew said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
Any AB game at the Millennium Stadium - roof open or not
Ummm....errr.... 2007...ummm😀
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@canefan said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@dogmeat The few French fans I've met seem good bastards. I'm more than happy for Les Bleus to win the RWCs soon, just for their fans who love rugby and Les Blacks
Hmm Les Gris but that wasn't the fans fault, and I agree. Six weeks with French fans for 2007 and apart from one obvious problem, it was great, as far as the fans go France itself was great accommodation was tough to find and not very good.
I might do it again if @Billy-Webb talks me out of RWC retirement. Thanks Wayne Barnes saved me heaps.
Did have a very amusing stay in Marseilles. Arrived very tired after flight from Hong Kong and TGV down from Paris. Showed up at accommodation and they had double booked. I was less than pleased, and another whole group of Kiwis were settling in. TBF she rang her daughter, an "artist" who had a spare room and we went there. Absolutely hilarious when we got into the place - it was just full of carved penises. All shapes and sizes. Some standing on the floor, those were more like statues really, smaller ones on book shelves, coffee table, everywhere you looked there was a dick. Most were timber but she had used different products as well, some sort of plaster, etc and other things. I almost laughed my cock off, but she had enough of them already. Absolutely bizarre and I'm not sure if she used them or just made them. I suspect both.
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@snowy said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@canefan said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@dogmeat The few French fans I've met seem good bastards. I'm more than happy for Les Bleus to win the RWCs soon, just for their fans who love rugby and Les Blacks
Hmm Les Gris but that wasn't the fans fault, and I agree. Six weeks with French fans for 2007 and apart from one obvious problem, it was great, as far as the fans go France itself was great accommodation was tough to find and not very good.
I might do it again if @Billy-Webb talks me out of RWC retirement. Thanks Wayne Barnes saved me heaps.
Did have a very amusing stay in Marseilles. Arrived very tired after flight from Hong Kong and TGV down from Paris. Showed up at accommodation and they had double booked. I was less than pleased, and another whole group of Kiwis were settling in. TBF she rang her daughter, an "artist" who had a spare room and we went there. Absolutely hilarious when we got into the place - it was just full of carved penises. All shapes and sizes. Some standing on the floor, those were more like statues really, smaller ones on book shelves, coffee table, everywhere you looked there was a dick. Most were timber but she had used different products as well, some sort of plaster, etc and other things. I almost laughed my cock off, but she had enough of them already. Absolutely bizarre and I'm not sure if she used them or just made them. I suspect both.
Sounds like trophies from her 'cellar'. You are lucky you got out intact.
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@snowy said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@crucial said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
Sounds like trophies from her 'cellar'. You are lucky you got out intact.
I was a bit concerned for a while. Well the whole time really.
Wife couldn't stop laughing.
That was probably due to the 'chair' she was sitting on.
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@snowy said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
@siam said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
Ummm....errr.... 2007...ummm
Really agree, but in the context of the thread, that was an awesome atmosphere and a great crowd. Allez les Bleus was deafening at times.
They were good winners too I thought, all things considered.
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Crusaders vs Lions was a cool occasion. The game was shit but the atmosphere was electric and the craic was outstanding.
Lions vs NZ Maori in Rotorua was a drag of a game also. That stadium is such a dump it makes Addington look state of the art, and it drizzled all night, but the Lions supporters again made it a cool night.
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@kiwiwomble said in Best Rugby Crowd you've been a part of:
agreed, did a few trips to cardiff whilst living in london, did cop quite a bit of abuse from the locals "finally got what you deserve!" after the 2007 QF which was a surprise after a few other very enjoyable trips
Never had that in '07, must have been the group I was with. One of my memories of that night was a bloke in an England shirt (football, not Rugby) getting kicked out of a pub for taunting AB supporters.
