Your Bledisloe Cup live report

 
The Crowd Roar Pro

By ohtani's jacket, 2 Nov 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Pro

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A dead rubber, a money grabbing sojourn… call it what you will, but a Bledisloe Cup match was played in Tokyo.

I hadn’t seen the All Blacks live since we won back the Bledisloe Cup in 2003, so initially I viewed it as a chance to go to the rugby. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy every single minute of it.

Was it a great game? Probably not, but the sight of All Blacks players wandering around Tokyo like a bunch of confused tourists made it a pretty eventful week for me, and the game itself gave me a rare chance to be a fan instead of some distant observer on a laptop.

First, a word on the stadium: I know a lot of people complained about the video referee and the ground itself, but National Olympic Stadium was a damn sight easier to get in and out of than Eden Park, which is traditionally a nightmare.

A couple of train rides and a brief wait in line and we had our pick of the unreserved seats. There were no problems on the way out either.

We got there early, but I couldn’t get over how good our seats were for non-reserved tickets.

National Olympic Stadium is primarily a track and field stadium, since it was a purpose built stadium for the 1964 Olympic Games. I’m sure you’ll have noticed on TV that it’s not really a rugby ground.

The only purpose built rugby stadium in Tokyo is Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium. National Olympic Stadium hosts some of the bigger University clashes and the annual All Japan National Championships, but it’s not an ideal Test match venue because of the athletic track.

Still, I’ve never had such good seats at Eden Park. I pretty much had a wide angle view of the entire pitch, and since Japanese people don’t stand up too often, I was able to watch the game undisturbed. For such a long standing stadium, I was truly impressed with the seating design.

The stadium sits 48,000 and the official crowd attendance was 44,449. The organisers gave away a fair number of tickets to high school students, but at least they invited high school rugby players to the game.

The actual paid crowd was probably somewhere in the vicinity of 40,000. I was actually surprised by how many Kiwis and Aussies flew over for the game. It was a far greater number than I expected.

Naturally, the Kiwis and Aussies were by far the most raucous section and managed to frighten and entertain Japanese people at the same time, but there were a fair number of knowledgeable Japanese fans and I even met a Sri Lankan man who told me the All Blacks were a gift from heaven.

I went to the game with my wife, who has never sat through an 80 minute rugby game in her life, and my student and former colleague, who spent five years in Australia but was otherwise oblivious to how the game is played.

We met up with a Japanese couple who spent seven years in New Zealand and were die hard fanatical All Black fans who knew the game inside out.

I’ll tell you now, I was never as proud of my wife as I was when she made it through 80 minutes of rugby. She watched the game with a pair of binoculars that my father gave to me on one of his trips to Tokyo. I couldn’t understand why he’d give me binoculars, but he said they’d come in handy one day, and what do you know?

My wife officially declared Richie McCaw as more handsome than Daniel Carter, though Daniel Carter is still handsome. Apparently, his face is too well organised. I have the same problem.

I was surprised by how little of the game the New Zealand fans actually watched. It seemed like more of an excuse to get together and have a piss up, but I guess it reminded me of back home.

They tried numerous times to start a Mexican wave, which made it around the stadium a few times, but the Aussies were more fun. I’ve got to give props to the guy who did a stirring rendition of Advance Australia Fair.

One thing I’ll say for the Aussies is that they kept a sense of humour about the whole thing. Loved the guy outside the stadium singing: “We are the losers! We are the losers! No time for winners ‘cos we are the losers of the world!” Can’t imagine too many Kiwis taking it that well.

Insights into the game?

Well, the All Blacks started their warm-ups earlier than the Wallabies and looked a hell of a lot more focused. They practised a lot of catching under the high ball and other drills. Steve Hansen monitored their preparation, whereas Stephen Moore appeared to be running the show down the other end.

The All Blacks were also the first team onto the field after half time, and my overall impression of the game was that if it hadn’t been for Sivivatu’s awful challenge then the result would’ve been largely the same as Wellington.

That ought to be a worry for the Wallabies, because they tried a hell of a lot harder than they did in Wellington and the All Black performance was more clinical than committed.

I can’t tell you what happened in the rucks, since from where I was sitting I could only tell if it was a turnover or not, but I will say that the All Blacks had a far superior lineout and their backline formations left the Wallabies looking pretty amateur.

Genia had a good game, but the Wallaby back play still consists of guys making half breaks on their own and too much lateral movement.

I’ve been saying this all season, but it’s far too easy for the All Blacks to scramble back in defence and cover the Wallaby line breaks, because every single Wallaby player has this idea that they’re going to run in a solo try.

They only know two routes – straight up the middle or out wide – and the latter is poor.

They seemed to think they could create an overlap from a lateral formation and somehow beat either the inside or outside man, but the All Blacks have shut this down seven times in a row.

The turning point was Giteau’s kicking in the second half. I don’t know how it came across on TV, but he was kicking straight up in the air. As I said earlier, the All Blacks were practising their catching during the warm-ups and Giteau kept gifting them possession and territory. The All Blacks’ kicking wasn’t much better to be honest, but they were at least kicking towards the touch line.

The crowd were a bit quiet in the second half. I think they would’ve preferred a few more tries.

There was time on the clock for a Wallaby comeback, but aside from some half chances, realistically the All Blacks had sealed it with ten or fifteen minutes to go. They milked the clock from there on out, but at least the Wallabies made them preserve the score line.

The game ran over time and Woodcock ended up being suspended as a result, but the whistle blew and so ended another chapter in the world’s most one sided rugby rivalry.

Richie McCaw received the Man of the Match award and two hundred thousand yen for his efforts, and they had a token presentation of the Bledisloe Cup since the game had somehow been advertised as the Cup decider.

The Wallabies left the field pretty early, but a group of All Blacks stuck around and came and greeted us fans in the cheap seats.

As critical and judgemental as fans like me can be, it was a real thrill to see the All Blacks live in person, even the guys who shouldn’t be in the team. I stood up and hollered as much as anyone else and I must say it was awesome seeing the All Blacks live.

In the end, it was a game for the fans: expats, Japanese rugby fans, folks with a connection to either of the two countries, random strangers from other countries. I offered commiserations to every Wallaby supporter I met, but they were off to drink some more.

Later on, I saw a bunch of supporters wearing Halloween costumes and climbing street poles in Shibuya. No dwelling on the result!

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