Watching the Rugby World Cup final in France

We were surrounded by passionate, vocal, excited French people. We were the only New Zealanders. The 2011 Rugby World Cup final between France and the All Blacks, played in Auckland, New Zealand. Was it intimidating or not?

Absolutely not! It was great fun, and we felt the excitement of the French challenge just as much as they felt our excitement at meeting our old rivals. A friend and her husband arranged with our local school here in Ramonville St-Agne (the school the children attend) to have a giant screen with the match projected onto a wall, in full, glorious colour and pitch-perfect sound, while many families and friends and children buzzed around excitedly, jumping up and down, screaming, singing, clapping and sighing in unision. (Oh and then sobbing, but that was them, not us!) I kept apologising when the game was won (by New Zealand), as I felt their sorrow as much as they did I think.

But they were gracious in their defeat. We celebrated together with champagne, shared food, and lively discussions afterwards, before everyone headed off for their school holidays. It was a great community affair, and a big thank you to our friends and the headmistress of the school for organising it.

You must understand that I am not generally one to get excited about 'thugby' as my friend Joanna calls it. Even she came round to the joys of it all. Here's what she wrote in her email to me:

But firstly, let us discuss the rugby!! What did you think of the result? Quite fitting for someone hedging her bets. Well done the All Blacks - we feel enormously proud and relieved, and well done France- they played a gutsy game and it was truly nail-biting. It has just been sensational here in New Zealand over here last seven weeks. I've always been a bit sneering about 'thugby' in the past, but have found myself embracing everything about the cup and game, and can happily join a conversation about breakdowns and turnovers, and not think we're talking about car accidents and apple pies.The atmosphere and buzz have been electric and relentless and obsessive.  We have been down to the Viaduct a few times to soak up the atmosphere, and we walked around Eden Park last night just to be part of the fun, which it really was, with everyone dressed in team colours, doing little chants and dances and giving each other some good-natured ribbing. We did get to one game- the All Blacks/Argentina semi-final, which was fantastic, but apart from that we have enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere from the comfort of our couch. Who knew we could throw such a party?! It's just been so exciting!

I was proud to be able to sing the French national anthem with our French friends (the Marseillaise) and then the New Zealand national anthem in both Maori and English. It was a moving moment, but then the game was way too tense for me, and I have never known fifteen minutes to go by so s l o w l y as they did at the end of the game. I was hedging my bets, as Joanna said, and bravely announcing that I was supporting both teams to win, but of course the All Blacks had my highest hopes; for the country of New Zealand too. And YAY. We won!

Francoise, a French lady we met last week said how happy she was that New Zealand had won. She said the All Blacks were very dignified in their victory, and fiercely proud. Not like zee English, she muttered quietly. Zey do not like zee French at all - zey would be very big 'ooligans if zey won'.