I flew to Auckland in a bunch of 5 on Saturday morning and made sure I was well and truly lubricated prior to kick off and roared myself hoarse during the game. The atmosphere was unlike anything I've been to before - including AFL grand finals, SOO, Bledisloe etc (only ACDC live got close), The paddy's outplayed us, out partied us and out supported us. It cost me buckets of dough, including the $50 I paid the kiwi cabbie to shut the fuck up straight after the game. I'm pretty sure I'm glad I went because the vibe helped ease the pain. 2 hours prior to the game all the really close pubs (Kingslander etc) were chockers so we kept walking to find a bar or whatever. We happened upon a bottlo that had been taken over by paddys. There seemed like a million of them drinking, singing and chanting inside and outside the shop. The place was going ape-shit. I has a grin from ear to ear just soaking it all in. I thought we were in trouble given the support and interest from the Paddys. They out numbered us 3 or 4 to one I reckon. For them it was almost their grand final. For us it was a pool game - nothing really, just a warm up.
That's why we lost.
For the record I would strongly advise against getting wasted on a mixture of gin, rum, lager, stout, red wine and more rum. It certainly made sitting on a bus for three hours each way to see Wales and Samoa far more painful than it needed to be.
