Somehow, four American girls with no understanding of rugby end up at a world cup game.
My host brother's company was selling tickets, and when our host parents asked Corinne, Kathryn and I if we wanted to go, we said YES. So one week, one Lara, and 290 big ones later, the four of us found ourselves walking into Eden Park. We ate dinner at home around 4 o'clock, and our host mom drove us to Kingsland to hang out until the game. We thought we might find a sports bar to spend some time in, but there were "queues" all the way down the street outside of every restaurant. Plus it was raining. Plus it was cold. Plus Lara does not currently own a raincoat. I began to lose my excitement.
Then we walked to the stadium, and the excitement returned. The stadium is smaller then most American stadiums, and even though we had seats that were high up we could still see everything very well. When we got to our seats, we were underneath a huge overhang and were safe from the rain - more excitement. Then the players came out to do their warmups and stretches... attractive and exciting.
Things got better and better from there. We became fast friends with all of our surrounding Ireland supporters, who were eager to explain to us how rugby is played (even though I thought I had a pretty good idea, I must say I was terribly terribly wrong. Rugby is freakin' complicated). We met SO many people who have taken time off/ quit their jobs to travel down here to support their team. It was a very low scoring game, only one successful try (?) from Ireland - all the other points were penalty goals (kicking...).
I walked in to the game not sure who I was going to cheer for, because my beloved grandmother was an Aussie. The energy in the stadium was almost overwhelmingly Irish. Regardless of who I was cheering for, it was a once in a lifetime experience and although it was pricey, it was worth it.*
*(Sidenote: 4 beers with 5% alcoholic content for $30... NOT worth it.)
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