I will openly admit that after England's early exit I became quite fluid as to my choice of team to support during the remainder of the Rugby World Cup. Initially I moved on to Georgia after my frequent visits to Eastern Europe this summer; fully aware that even though they played gutsy rugby they were unlikely to make it out of the group stages. I then felt that as a Brit I should select a home nation. Scotland were a worthy choice and I certainly felt for our northern neighbours but no one showed their emotion quite as openly as Argentina. I am sure I was not alone in admiring their performance against Ireland and cheering them on against Australia.
That lead us to the final between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies. According to BBC Sport over eighty percent of people had predicted the All Blacks to win and I was one of those. That did not mean I had pledged to support the rugby Kings and I was struggling to choose where my allegiance lay. My great grandfather was a Kiwi and I was keen to see New Zealand make history by winning back to back World Cups. That said, there was the one small fact that swayed it - I was in Australia when the match was being played.
Secretly I wanted to see the Wallabies in the final as I hoped I would be able to enjoy the pre World Cup final hype on the other side of the world. Sadly there proved to be more advertisements for the upcoming Bond film than the World Cup. Originally I had planned to head out and embrace the occasion in a bar but that was before I realised the kick off was 3am local time. I felt obliged to get up and watch it although crawling downstairs in my pyjamas won over a drunken early morning trip to the pub.
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