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Over the last few years I have been ‘wasting my time’ according to some by supporting the emotional roller coasters that are the Kiwis league team, the Warriors and the Black Caps.
Then nights like October 25 come around and make it all worthwhile.
It all began far too familiarly – after three minutes Gerald Beale dropped a bomb and it was touchdown Beau Scott.
Next was the token up, a Shaun Johnson 40/20 followed very closely by the down, Jason Nightingale celebrating a little too early and duffing what would usually be an easy try for him.
Kevin Proctor was next to get close to the line and made it count this time, muscling his way over for a four pointer which Johnson added two to.
Again this up was closely followed by a down – Greg Inglis easily galloping over to add six more points against us.
The rest of the half was a fight with Keiran Foran, Johnson and Proctor stand outs. Lewis Brown cheekily got a four pointer by darting through a gap five metres out and Johnson added the extras to tie it up again.
Two minutes out from halftime we turned down a shot at two for a go at the line, which turned out to be unsuccessful after a terrible pass to Shaun Kenny-Dowall saw him escorted over the touchline.
It was deja-vu at the break, the Kiwis in contention but surely in the second 40 they’ll lose the plot and the Kangaroos will steam home. I was to be pleasantly surprised…
It was as if a different Kangaroos team ran out. They were dropping balls and two of their best players – Inglis and Daly Cherry-Evans – were now sitting on the sideline. Foran and Johnson looked very comfortable together and now have me watching Eric Watson’s Twitter account very closely.
Warriors rumours aside, the second 40 was very enjoyable. Johnson had another one of his moments of brilliance and got himself a four-pointer, then it was Foran’s turn to have one with a kick to Dean Whare in the corner. With Johnson’s touch both of these are converted to six-pointers.
It’s not until Nightingale gets it down and Johnson converts for a 100 per cent strike rate on the night that I start to relax and realise that we’ve beaten the Kangaroos (albeit a depleted side) for the first time since the Four Nations in 2010.
I just hope we can back up this performance in the Four Nations final in Wellington, because the Samoa and England games were not played to the same calibre.
For some people being a sports fan in New Zealand is much less stressful. They just watch the All Blacks and only follow the others when they win. Fair enough when the Black Caps batsmen (apart from Luke Ronchi) perform like they did in the recent South African ODI series. But my mentality is that if I don’t watch them lose I’ll only end up reading about their wins and I won’t get to experience the moments that come with them.
I’ll be watching as much as the Pakistan Test series as I can because I genuinely believe we will perform better than the Australians did. If we come away with a draw or, dare I say it, a win I will be able to celebrate their victory. If we go down 2-0 then no biggie, we’ll make up for it on our home pitches.
Being a sports fan in New Zealand is one of the toughest gigs out there when teams are so inconsistent. At the same time it’s so rewarding when all of the players play to their potential.
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