Last weekend the BIG event was the Lions Tour coming to Wellington. For those who don’t know (do you live in a cave!?!), the Lions are the four-nations rugby team of England, Ireland, Wales and Sctoland, made up of the best players of those nations, coming to tour around NZ and play footie (rugby). This is the first Lions tour for 12 years, and everyone is very excited. We have also been facing the “Barmy Army”, tens of thousands of British rugby fans who have saved for years so they could come to NZ, hire a campervan, and follow their team around the country.
The tour has consisted of games against the local/provincial teams during the week, and three tests against the All Blacks, NZ’s national team, on the weekends. The All Blacks were looking for victory, after loosing the World Cup in 2003. And now was their chance, as England is the current reigning champion.
So, last Saturday night was the second Test, here in Wellington (the first was last week in Christchurch, the ABs won 21-6). The city was crawling with people. Not just the Barmy Army, ex-pat Brits had flown over from Australia, and plenty of Kiwis had come in from around the country for the test. They had giant screens set up around the city. Courtney Place, one of the main drags of the city (all buses go to Courtney Place, or so it seems) was closed off to handle the crowds. The police reckon that the crowds were larger than for the Return of the King premier back in 2003. Tam, Kerry and I took the train into town, and watched the game on the big screen in the Michael Fowler center. Lots of fun. The AB’s had the Lions for lunch. The first seven minutes of the game were pretty frought, as the Lions scored a quick try, and then some penalty points. That seemed to wake the ABs up, and the rest was a romp. Final score, 48-18. We then had to make our way out of town, working our way like salmon upstream through the tide of red coming out of the stadium as tens of thousands of Lions supporters hit the street.
But everyone was in a good mood. Unlike US fans, who regularly loot and burn if their team wins (or loses), this just turned into a huge street party. Apparently 40,000 people crammed into Courtney Place after the game, and the party went until dawn. A friend of ours who works for a major rail/freight company told us of the massive logistics effort that went into bringing in enough beer for the party. A really startling amount of beer was drunk. Really, more than that. And for these tens of thousands of fans there were only 90 police officers. And at the end of the night there were only 37 arrests for minor offenses- which is typical for a regular Saturday night. Remarkable. No bad behavior. No fighting. Everyone just there for a good time. It is nice to see when sporting events bring out the best in people. Kudos to the British fans, who kept good spirits and didn’t get grumpy, even after flying around the world to watch their team lose! :)
We have heard that the Barmy Army has been very impressed by the friendliness of the Kiwis. Good to see it going both ways. Tomorrow night is the final test in Auckland. Hopefully the ABs can make the series 3-0!