RWC - Wallabies v Ireland - 17th September 2011

Barbar, we all know there's no happily ever after with the Wallabies!

It's like being in relationship with a high maintenance girlfriend. You love their looks, the good days are intoxicating, the bad days make you wonder what you ever saw in them, and the make up sex can sometimes be so wild you deliberately pretend the bad days never happened.

You are a gentleman and a scholar (of rugby at least). Glad to have you here.

Following the Wallabies is a tough gig and I went into shock after the loss to Ireland. However, today I have come right and I'm looking forward to our semi-final with the All Blacks!
Sure, the losses are hard to take at times but hell I love the wins. Maybe they seem better when there are less of them.
Our side I believe is the new France of rugby.
All other teams beware and be afraid when we turn up to play.

When following the Wallabies, a common feeling on Thursdays. We've thrashed ourselves and them about what happened last Saturday, the team for the next game has been announced and suddenly the possibilities are endless!!

I flew to Auckland in a bunch of 5 on Saturday morning and made sure I was well and truly lubricated prior to kick off and roared myself hoarse during the game. The atmosphere was unlike anything I've been to before - including AFL grand finals, SOO, Bledisloe etc (only ACDC live got close), The paddy's outplayed us, out partied us and out supported us. It cost me buckets of dough, including the $50 I paid the kiwi cabbie to shut the fuck up straight after the game. I'm pretty sure I'm glad I went because the vibe helped ease the pain. 2 hours prior to the game all the really close pubs (Kingslander etc) were chockers so we kept walking to find a bar or whatever. We happened upon a bottlo that had been taken over by paddys. There seemed like a million of them drinking, singing and chanting inside and outside the shop. The place was going ape-shit. I has a grin from ear to ear just soaking it all in. I thought we were in trouble given the support and interest from the Paddys. They out numbered us 3 or 4 to one I reckon. For them it was almost their grand final. For us it was a pool game - nothing really, just a warm up.

That's why we lost.

For the record I would strongly advise against getting wasted on a mixture of gin, rum, lager, stout, red wine and more rum. It certainly made sitting on a bus for three hours each way to see Wales and Samoa far more painful than it needed to be.

Another victim of the bus ride. The bus there was alright, bar taking an extra 1 and a bit hours, arriving just before kick off.

The ride home though was just as tough, in a mini bus. Poor Kiwi blokes had to lay down on the floor because their earlier bus had stuffed up.

At least ours had a couple of topless chicks and no kiwis.

Wish we were all at the Kingslander in the smoking/outdoor area. Once we started, we didn't stop, bar refills.

Taking NakedBus to a whole new level. I was clearly on the wrong bus.

I reckon I belted out "shit part of England" to the tune of One Tonne Rodeo fifty times for numerous laughs but very little support. How'd you go. Get any one howling with you?

Last half dozen posts seem like a nice way to end a 55 page thread that was 99% agony.

No howling, just surprised looks. eg. shit aussies can sing?

Thanks for the spelling correction, getting late when I posted that one. To clarify, arrogant is probably the wrong word but the doubt persists as to whether the Aussie players did their research going into the game. there was talk of BOD in the build up but that was it, no mention of a pair of props who have dealt with everything thrown at them in the last year, no mention of SOB, european player of the year, no mention of Ferris. Were the Wallabies operation guilty of complacency? It doesn't really worry me as it is not my problem. On a related topic, aside from our loss to you fellas last summer when it was the third team playing, and the August games which were not treated as proper tests, almost every Ireland loss in the last two years can be attributed to stupidity/ concentration loss; the most egregious example being Heaslip's brainfart v NZ last June. Anyway, pleased to hear the Irish lads are making a good account of themselves on the terraces and in the bars.

Ah, I have fond memories of cracking open a longneck on the railing of that particular bottle-o. Pissing rain, lots of banter, heaps of good humour. Good times, good, good times.

We rented a car to get down to Wales and Samoa. It still took almost three hours, but at least I wasn't on a bus.

I would be incredibly surprised if the Wallabies didn't sit through hours upon hours of footage of recent Irish games in the build up to the RWC.

I am sure they knew exactly who they were playing.

The Wallabies played poorly and lost. I don't think arrogance or lack of planning had anything to do with it. They just didn't muscle up on the day and were completely outplayed.

[video=youtube;YljcMKm3dj8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YljcMKm3dj8[/video]



This Australian team was missing David Pocock and Stephen Moore. They were up against Ireland's strongest possible side.