Even the most spectacular of Rugby World Cup finals will struggle to match the lofty heights scaled by Marlie Packer’s intrepid grandfather this week. Ken Packer is 85 years old but that did not stop him jumping off the Sky Tower, New Zealand’s tallest building, attached only to a couple of thin cables. If England show the same unflinching, can-do spirit at Eden Park, the rest will take care of itself.
His warrior granddaughter, preparing for her third successive World Cup final, was as stunned and impressed as everyone else. “We couldn’t believe it. They came around and said anyone over the age of 75 could go free. They gave him a special thing for his glasses so they didn’t fall off his head and off he went. He loved it. When we walked back past it later in the evening, he was looking up and saying ‘I can’t believe I jumped off that.’”
