Best of RWC 2011
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2011 was absolutely manic for me. Fluctuated between being confident about finally getting the monkey off our back to going for long runs to alleviate the stress of simply contemplating another 4 years of hurt.
There was however one weird, totally random sign that told me that this might finally be it. A couple of weeks before the final, the wife and I stayed at this nice spa hotel in Eastern Norway. I turned on the TV that evening and, remember this is bloody Norway, the Footrot Flats movie was on. Absurdly random. I felt that had to be a sign. Love that film btw.
My "enduring" memory is my wife and then 6 year old eldest son watching in shocked silence while I carried on like a demented idiot during the Argentina game.
Anyway, the wife was planning a weekend away with some friends and being such a lovely soul she said should could wait until after the final so that she could look after the kids while I lost my mind watching rugby. I told her not to and to keep to her plans. Murphy's law dictates that if she stayed home then we probably would lose to Aus and not even make the final. Yeah I was looking at every superstitious farking Voodoo doll advantage I could get.
So of course we made it and I had to watch the final while babysitting my youngest (then 2). Thankfully he was mostly behaved but I scared the poor bugger when yelling at the TV. Those last minutes were agony. At the final whistle I just slumped down to my knees in relief. To celebrate I took the lad to MacDonalds where I guarantee not a single person within a 50km radius even knew the game had been on. I remember picking up a newspaper that had nothing in it but shit about soccer and Ronaldo. Massive party for me!
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The only thing I take with any Nationalistic pride from that tournament was Manu Tuilagi getting the Auckland Ferry high diving gold.
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@Catogrande said in Best of RWC 2011:
The only thing I take with any Nationalistic pride from that tournament was Manu Tuilagi getting the Auckland Ferry high diving gold.
Dwarf throwing champs?
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I went to both games up here, best atmosphere i have seen at Okara, electric!
This still gives me chills re-watching now.
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Me and the wife took in all the AB's pool games as our big hurrah before we settled down and had kids. I didn't have the confidence to book any tickets for the knock out games though (if only for 20/20 hindsight).
Remember it being an incredible event, everyone was in such good spirts, so friendly, you'd just sit and chat with random people prior to kick off and buy each other drinks. The foreign fans offered so much color and joy - it was an atmosphere I'd never see and maybe never will see in NZ again.
Missus was ever so social so we'd befriend people at games then catch up with them at the other pool games across the country for drinks before the game, just total strangers ya know, just bought together by rugby and having a good time.
The most pleasing aspect of the pool games was how easy it was to get booze at the venues, mind you that may have been abetted by my wife being more than happy to go off to the concierge and make new friends with people while I sat in the stands with a constant supply of beer (and new friends to talk to) being delivered.
The final however was the most stressful event ever, was hoping that Donald would come on as Weepu couldn't hit a barn door with his kicking.
When we won I ran around outside the house spraying a bottle of champagne in the air, truly the best of times.
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Was based in London for this WC... but decided I'd hop across to France to watch the Final. Caught the train over to... can't remember - not Paris, a relatively small town... but with a train station for the Eurostar?
Went over, started to panic when I thought I might not find a place open early in the morning to watch it... but found a likely venue.
Turned up early in the morning at this bar, they had a free breakfast spread on, welcomed me in.
We all watched it together - me getting really rather drunk sitting at the bar nervously chopping beer after beer. The locals started enjoying just watching my reaction more than the game I think... and at full-time - they all congratulated me, plenty of hands shaken and pats on the back.
I wandered off in a daze, plenty of locals seeing my All Blacks jersey and congraatulating me... had some lunch, fucked up the timing for my return train - running drunkenly through an international train station - the local gendarme/border-control saw the jersey, congratulated me, asked me which train I was on - the one leaving in about 5 minutes - and ran me through the staff corridors, completely bypassing customs/border-control/etc - to get me onto the train with about 30 seconds to spare.
Pure class - on their part, if not mine. -
@Catogrande Yeah - I was looking at the map earlier. trying to figure it out... even Lille seems too big for what I remember.
It had a lovely wee plaza/town-square. -
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Watching the Final just now brought back a lot of memories. We didn't go to a single game, but what a great time we had! Second best experience of a sports event I've ever had, both watching the games in a mate's beer-filled man cave with a group of friends and the whole atmosphere in NZ during the tournament and after the Final.
