Sports bars across New Zealand are fully booked, flights to France are selling out and schools have told students they can ditch their uniforms and wear all black as rugby fever grips the country in the lead-up to the World Cup final against South Africa.
“People are going crazy,” says Becks Christiansen, the marketing manager of Four Kings and Jack Hackett’s, a double-storey sports bar in central Wellington.
The bar has been fully booked since the All Blacks beat Ireland last Sunday, Christiansen says.
But it won’t be quite business as usual. With the game kicking off at 8am local time on Sunday, Christiansen has decided to put on a buffet breakfast for its 300 pre-booked punters.
Anticipation is building across New Zealand as the final looms, with hopes high that the national team can redeem itself after a lacklustre year.
Media coverage is focused on the two nations vying to become the first country to win four World Cups. The talkback radio station Newstalk ZB calls the game “a dream final”; the New Zealand Herald’s Liam Napier writes that this could be the All Blacks’ greatest triumph yet.
The price of tickets to France have skyrocketed. The travel group Flight Centre says there has been a 65% increase in demand for flights since the All Blacks made the final, despite astronomical last-minute costs – between NZ$3,000 and $5,000 for a one-way ticket, a big jump from the usual $1,600.
The outgoing sports minister, Grant Robertson, managed to nab an 11th hour flight to Paris. Robertson is delighted he will be supporting the team on behalf of the government. “The team is in top form to take on the Springboks, with both sides vying to win the cup for a fourth time,” he says.
Both the prime minster, Chris Hipkins, and prime minister-elect, Christopher Luxon, signed off on the trip.
Luxon has posted a selfie in an All Blacks shirt, writing: “One more mountain to climb. Go the All Blacks!” Hipkins tells the Guardian he is incredibly proud of the team.
“It was a tough opener but the team have certainly set the tournament alight since then,” Hipkins says. “I know they’re fired up for Sunday morning and so are New Zealanders.”
The country’s biggest stadium, Auckland’s Eden Park, announced on Wednesday that it would host a free watching party. By Thursday fans had snapped up 7,500 tickets. The event organisers will keep releasing tickets until the stadium’s 50,000-person capacity is reached.
Pubs and living rooms are standing in for stadiums for fans outside France and Auckland. At another Wellington pub, the Hotel Bristol, the manager, Melissa Stewart, is busy answering the phone.
“Yes, sorry, we are fully booked,” she tells a caller before hanging up. “The phone has been ringing like this for days.”
The interest in the game has been extraordinary, she says, with the enthusiasm since the start of the tournament “doubling tenfold”.
A Wellington-based super fan, Ash Rea, always believed the All Blacks would put up a good fight but the team’s win against Ireland still drew an unexpected response from her.
“I straight up almost punched my television and I don’t normally get so involved – I was just so happy,” she says, laughing.
“Our performance improved dramatically since the beginning of the tournament,” Rea says, adding that the All Blacks’ game against Argentina was a snapshot of how she believes the team will perform at the final. “You could see they were putting everything into it.”
Rea plans on watching the final at home with friends and family. “I suspect on the day I will probably be pretty nervous … but I 100% think we are going to kick South Africa’s ass.”
A mood boost for the nation
The All Blacks’ ascent to the final marks a significant turnaround from mid 2022, when they were called “the worst All Black side ever” after the historic loss of their Test series against Ireland.
The dramatic shift could also revive the reputation of their outgoing coach, Ian Foster, who was ousted from the job amid intense scrutiny after the losses.
“We are bearing witness to the redemption of Ian Foster, the man who not so long ago stood in the eye of the storm, surrounded by doubts and scepticism,” wrote Luke Kirkness, New Zealand Herald’s online sports editor.
A lifelong All Blacks fan Maurice, 70, who gives his first name only, comes from a rugby-loving family – he was the captain of his school’s team and his father made the All Blacks finals. Last year’s season was “pretty disastrous”, he says, but the team has defied expectations this tournament. He puts the change in fortune down to the hiring of new assistant coaches.
“The All Blacks have always had this trait of being tenacious, innovating … you can never write them off,” he says.
Up the All Blacks
The tournament comes at a time when the country is battling post-Covid malaise, economic pressures and is stuck in political limbo, as the final results for the general election inch closer.
Christiansen says the winning streak has been a coup for pubs and bars. “It’s been a period of uncertainty for a lot of people, the hospitality industry has been hit really hard with Covid, and things like this make it for us,” she says.
The excitable mood is nowhere more apparent than in New Zealand’s rugby-mad schools.
Children in room one at New Plymouth’s Central school have voiced their support for the team via a video message – replete with gameplay advice, ribbings about mullet hairstyles and enthusiastic cheers of encouragement.
On Friday pupils at Greytown school, an hour north of Wellington, ditched their red uniforms for black attire in a school-wide day of rugby celebration.
“If you could see it from space it would be all black,” says nine-year-old Ashton Fenwick.
Freddy Hight, 10, says rugby has been a part of his life for as long as he remembers. “When I was three years old, my dad woke me up to watch rugby games,” he says.
Zoe Nielson, 10, has similarly grown up watching the game with her family.
All the students are surprised the All Blacks managed to boot Ireland out of the tournament, and are excited and nervous for Sunday’s match.
“If [the All Blacks] were here right now and I had to say one thing to them, I would say, ‘good luck in the final,’” Zoe says. “This is a really big deal for them.”
Hazel Hall, also 10, would say, “Do your best. If you don’t win it, it doesn’t matter, just have a good game.”
And what would Ashton say? “Hmm, let me think,” he says, bringing his hand to his chin in faux-contemplation. “Up the All Blacks!”
