Ireland V All Blacks - Hamilton 10 June 2006
All day, the excitement and nervousness was rising in our group. "Imagine," we said "Imagine being able to say 'I was there the night Ireland beat the All Blacks in Hamilton'" Besides it's looooong past time that we got over the whole Munster beating the All Blacks in 1978... we definitely needed something else to brag about. 
Dancing shamrock things and a weird black dismantled rugby ball thing with a silver fern inside helped to build the atmosphere (and contribute to its dry ice content. It was starting to remind me of the Super 14 final)
Then there were some fireworks and random explosions, the heat from which I could feel in the stand... I felt sorry for the dancing shamrocks that were prancing off a little too close to the blasts.
Once we had sang the anthems and the boys in black had done their line dancing, it was on with the game.
The first few minutes were fairly disasterous to be honest, with a try for New Zealand while some of the Irish players were still doing up their bootlaces. For a moment there, I thought were in for a repeat of the match in Landsdowne road last year where we didn't score until the dying seconds of the game. But I was wrong. Ireland scored WAY more than that, and by half time, my throat was sore from singing "The Fields of Athenry" (Chorus only, as is traditional at sporting events). The two kiwi women behind me had sore throats from shouting 'FECK' at the ref, the players, the linesmen... everyone really. I had taught them a new word, and although they seemed to enjoy it, it may not have been one of my betters ideas since I had to endure hearing it at full volume, right into my ear for the remainder of the first half (they never returned to their seats in the second half.. couldn't figure out why). By the end of the first half, Ireland's score was double that of New Zealand's.... happy days!!
Dancing shamrock things and a weird black dismantled rugby ball thing with a silver fern inside helped to build the atmosphere (and contribute to its dry ice content. It was starting to remind me of the Super 14 final)
Then there were some fireworks and random explosions, the heat from which I could feel in the stand... I felt sorry for the dancing shamrocks that were prancing off a little too close to the blasts.
Once we had sang the anthems and the boys in black had done their line dancing, it was on with the game.
The first few minutes were fairly disasterous to be honest, with a try for New Zealand while some of the Irish players were still doing up their bootlaces. For a moment there, I thought were in for a repeat of the match in Landsdowne road last year where we didn't score until the dying seconds of the game. But I was wrong. Ireland scored WAY more than that, and by half time, my throat was sore from singing "The Fields of Athenry" (Chorus only, as is traditional at sporting events). The two kiwi women behind me had sore throats from shouting 'FECK' at the ref, the players, the linesmen... everyone really. I had taught them a new word, and although they seemed to enjoy it, it may not have been one of my betters ideas since I had to endure hearing it at full volume, right into my ear for the remainder of the first half (they never returned to their seats in the second half.. couldn't figure out why). By the end of the first half, Ireland's score was double that of New Zealand's.... happy days!!
posted by Maz @ 10:20 pm
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