All Blacks 40 – 0 Scotland

Yesterday we were priveleged enough to join thousands of other kiwis in Edinburgh to watch the All Blacks embarass the Scots.

We drove up nice and early (left Newcastle at about 11am for 4pm kickoff) and were glad we did, as traffic delays left us with only just enough time to grab some food, watch the warm ups and get ourselves ready for the game.

I have to say, I was a little dissapointed with our seats (high in the stand behind the goalposts) but when the team ran on, and when we sang the national anthem, I had chills run up my spine, it was amazing.

I toned down some of my typical parochial rugby behaviour (cheering and applauding opposition stuff-ups) when I realised the big guy next to me was an angry Scot. However there’s not too much place for being politically correct in a rugby game; in the second half, down our end, Ali Williams started climbing through a ruck from directly behind (technically legal, but never popular). The ref awarded a scrum (I think) for an unrelated reason but everyone was booing Ali Williams. After the booing died down I yelled out “good work Ali!” at which point a few of the surrounding kiwi’s cheered. I didn’t get beaten up.

The performance from the AB’s was far from perfect, but it shows that they’re a good team when they can win a game by forty points to nill and not look particularly dominant.

The only major downer of the day was that after getting out of the ground we had to wait two and a half hours for our bus back to the park and ride and didn’t get home till about 10:30.

But I can say we’re both certainly looking forward to Cardiff in two weeks. If we end up playing France, then it’s going to be an amazing atmosphere.