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Watching the game on Sunday afternoon were mostly first-timers to a rugby game (except for the loud mouthed Taffy!) and they witnessed a 62 -15 demolition job of Bay of Plenty at Carisbrook, Dunedin - what really was BoPs 'House of Pain'. |
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Rugby enthusiasts from the Netherlands, England, Scotland, USA and even someone from Oamaru joined in supporting Otago to leapfrog up the National Provincial Championship (NPC) ladder to 5th place with two weeks to go in the round-robin section before the semi-finals.
Some beautiful tries were scored as the match unfolded with stand out players being Jeff 'Goldie' Wilson, Paul 'Tank' Miller, Anton 'The Creature' Oliver, Joe 'Mac' MacDonnell and Hayden 'Blondie' Reid. Replacement forward Grant 'No nickname yet' Webb scored two tries and played well while the Chainsaw - Brendan Laney chimed in well with his goal kicking. "Can I kick it - Yes you can".
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Some great new chants came out as we made the most noise in the house - only challenged by 4 hard-core supporters in front of us, taking us on in the OTAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGO chant. The SKY TV girl kept us entertained too and finally she did give us the wave - but Rich is still waiting for her phone number. Surely got some TV time out of that one!
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Half time entertainment was a couple of wallies kicking a ball about but the 'splash for cash' was a lot more amusing. A few likely lads had to run down a slippery soapy wet mat to claim a rugby ball. All good fun (for the spectators anyway).
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Once the game had finished and some post match celebratory dancing on the terraces was over we went up in to the "& Bar" (makes sense if you have seen the Speights TV commercial - "I hear the wife is moving up north and taking two thirds of the business....") to say hi to those in this 'Student Corporate Box'. Good photo opportunity was not missed.
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Back to the Gardies for the aftermatch and boy did that continue on for a while! Bottom Bus shouted the first round as promised (if Otago wins) and announced the winners of the competitions. Lital won the $20 Gardies bar tab pick the score; Linda took away the AJ Hackett Bungy prize for best face-paint and Katie won a Speights cap and flag for having big Joe MacDonnell as the first try scorer.
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We were all happy that Lital invested her winnings wisely in a round of shots for us - cheers! So all the prizes to the females - however there were more sheilas than trevs on this trip (as is the norm). Lynette, the driver was well entering in to the spirit of things and came close to winning the face-paint comp but being a judge did rule her out!
The meal went down well as did the Speights as the night continued on with pool games, duke box getting a hammering and mingling with the scarfies (Otago Uni students). The PE crew came in a little later on after a bit of a 'team bonding' session at the Cook.
A few of the group got photos taken with some of the Bay of Plenty players who were drowning their sorrows in the Gardies later in the night. Then our favourite Leek Ricardo was moved to singing the Welsh National anthem standing on the pool table. Bloody marvelous. Being of welsh decent it bought tears to my eyes .... he was standing on my fingers!
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So another successful sojourn to the 'Brook and we are now looking forward to the challenge of Ferdinand - Taranaki on Sunday October 14. And we can be sure to count on the support of another satisfied group of backpackers even if they may be only watching it on the tele!
Only one thing left to say.
OTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGO!!!!!!
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