And so it Begins!

And so it begins!

Well I made it safe and sound to New Zealand after what could only be called a very long and tiring flight where no sleep was taken (well maybe a couple of hours!).

Landing in New Plymouth we could see that the small town was very excited to be hosting the World Cup with nearly all the shops having Ireland, USA, Russia or Wales flags and colors in their windows and this only helped with getting us over the jet lag which I was determined not to suffer from!

As the “handles” of Tui's followed at the hotel with the rest of the tour party the decision was made to stick around to watch the England Argentina game. It was a tough old game to watch, one because we all wanted to see Argentina win and secondly because the beer was not helping with the tiredness, but we made it and the jet lag was over come!

After the excitement of landing day came game day and with the fact that the hotel across from ours was the Ireland team hotel, where just the day before we watched as some of the boys come and go on some hired bikes everyone was in a very excited mood!

Making our way to the ground by private bus rather than walking we got there I plenty of time before the gates opened and so when they did it was straight to the bar where the (very expensive) beer was flowing. With the wind and rain coming and going we knew that it was going to be a night when the elements could cause a few problems for both teams but hoping that Ireland having the experience of them we did not worry to much.

Taking my seat on the try line I got settled down with my four pack and a few “Ireland” supporters around me. This is when the World Cup started for me truly. There were Maori's and other New Zelanders in Ireland tops as well as USA and other Ireland fans, the banter was good and the game was under way, that was until just a few minutes in when the chanting started!

I have no problems with soccer fans supporting rugby teams, the more the better I say when it comes to supporting ones home country in the Rugby World Cup but when you try and turn it into a soccer game, give up and go home I say! There was no need for the Ole chants to start just after kick off, I see no problem with the good old chant of “Ireland, Ireland, Ireland!” and with the beginning of a “Mexican” wave after only around a couple of minutes after kick off I was starting to doubt some of the other “Ireland” fans were really supposed to be there.

The game itself was very badly affect by the weather as expected but I, and the rest of my tour party, did not think that this could be used to help justify the performance. Ireland looked very lacklustre and at times they seemed to let the pressure of getting the win get to them. We all knew that the win was a must and I was hoping that I would witness a complete Ireland domination which would include scoring enough try's to get the bonus point and help to boost the teams confidence but unfortunately it was not to come.

Now I have moved onto our second hotel and the build up to the Australia game has begun I have forgotten about the USA game and am now trying to build am image of how the game will play out in Auckland with what I think a team of; Keaney, Bowe, Trimble, O'Driscoll, Darcy, O'Gara, Reddan, Court, Best, Ross, O'Connell, O'Canahal, Ferris, Heslip and O'Brien will start.

Now, until Auckland!