Snippets from the Lions Tour to New Zealand 4

By Nemoquin
July 12 2005

In Christchurch for the First Test we were booked into a hotel in Cathedral Square, right next to the hotel at which the All Blacks were staying and across the road from a bar with a 24hour licence,while the Lions were in town.

I thought that after the depressing result, there would be no chance of getting any sleep that night. What was even worse was that we were due to leave for Blenheim at 6.30am on Sunday morning. However, at least the atrocious weather kept the revellers inside somewhere, so that we could be depressed in relative peace and quiet.

Even the cathedral was caught up in rugby fever, with a large banner draped across the tower making reference to the biblical story of Daniel's triumph in the lions' den.

On Monday a wine festival had been arranged for us in Blenheim with thirty or so of the local producers represented. This confirmed my belief that New Zealand can produce some seriously good wines, in particular sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.

We couldn't get space on the ferries going back to the North Island, because it had all been taken by Lions supporters in campervans and other modes of transport. So, the tour company had chartered a plane. I bumped into Sir Jason at the airport. As ever he was the perfect gentleman, only too happy to sign autographs or be photographed with fans.

On Tuesday it was another two hour coach ride to Palmerston North for the next game. From the tourist's point of view the town does not have much to recommend it. However, if you ever do go there, there is one must-see, the New Zealand Museum of Rugby. It has caps, balls, newspaper clippings, programmes, shirts and other memorabilia, not only from New Zealand, but from around the world. They have what is apparently the first whistle ever used by a referee to control an international game, and this is now used to blow for the kickoff in the first game of each Rugby World Cup Final tournament. When I was there they had the Bledisloe Cup and Ranfurly Shield on loan. However, they have far more in store than they have space to display it to the public.

There was a list of clubs associated with the Museum, which included "Harlequins Rugby Football Club Ltd" and " Harlequin Rugby Football Club Ltd". Unfortunately there wasn't time for one of the curators to provide more details. I picked up a copy of their newsletter, which had an article about additional games arranged at the last moment for touring teams. One item in there could provide the basis for possibly the ultimate Quins trivia question. In 1958 on the day after the third Test between the All Blacks and the touring Wallabies,players from both sides took part in the LV Bryant Memorial Match, with the teams called Barbarians and Harlequins respectively.

If you can't get there, at least try the website, www.rugbymuseum.co.nz

Unfortunately local fans at provincial matches have a bad habit: they do the Mexican Wave. I might concede that this was amusing once, but now it is just boring. To make it worse, a few fans take the opportunity of throwing their arms up in the air, to throw their plastic beer bottles up in the air. The bootles appear to be empty, but if one landed on somebody, at the least it would be annoying, and at worst could cause an injury.

Funnily enough, I was colder in Palmerston North, than I was in Christchurch. On Tuesday, I was out in the open with little protection from the wind. At Christchurch, I was under cover. However, there if the direction of the wind had changed, no matter how far under the grandstand someone was, it would still have soaked them. I was out in the open for a couple of minutes leaving the game, and the weather really was atrocious. All the more credit, therefore, to the teams in managing to play any rugby at all.

However, here in Wellington the weather is much better, with a fair amount of sunshine and decent conditions forecast for the game on Saturday - here's hoping.