Dan Carter eh?

 Look at his little face!

Ireland v Italy, Otago Stadium, Dunedin, 2^nd October 8:30pm.

We woke on Sunday morning to the news that Dan Carter was out of the RWC. One of the world's greatest rugby players playing in a world cup at home and he's out before the business end of things. The reaction here is immense. It’s all anyone wants to talk about. Like the Apostles losing Jesus or the Beatles John Lennon, the locals are finding it hard to see a way to continue. On Breakfast TV the anchor asked the celebrity Chef for his opinion on the Carter story.

Sunday kicked off with a family barbecue at the Irelands over in Campbell's Bay on the North Shore. Some fantastic food (Red Ruby, Hoki fish, homemade Sushi and homemade bread) and a birthday celebration for Sarah’s Mum (thanks Barry & Madeline for your hospitality!) made for a great afternoon.  We also managed to catch the first half of the All Blacks tearing Canada apart (Stuart Barnes is on the TV panel!) as well as Wales v Fiji which was a major disappointment after their game in 2007. A beady eye will have to be kept on George North now we've got past Italy. 

The plan for the evening was to go to the ‘Fan Zone’ or Party Central as it’s known but the weather has been so brutal we decided to find a decent bar and watch Ireland try to overhaul Italy in comfort (ours not theirs). We settled on here and met up with Rachael and Dave. The local Rugby League team, the Warriors, were playing in the Grand Final against Manley in Sydney and the games overlapped by about 30 minutes so the pub was fairly split in two with people shouting for either code. As the bar started to fill a couple of girls from Blackrock turned up. They’d landed in NZ a few weeks ago having decided at 22 that there wasn’t much of a future for them back home and were working locally.

A tense first half unravelled in front of us. Ireland were trying to play rugby but Italy were having none of it. We were matching them blow for blow up front but it was proving difficult to break them down and they never looked like getting anywhere near our try line. When Ghiraldini tried to rip Cian Healy’s face off the place erupted. Even the Italian guy sitting across from us had the good grace to look sheepish as they showed the replay. SOB, Ferris and Healy all contined their great form and battered away at the Italians for a change (one for the chip shop fans there).

The second half was ours as the hard work started to pay off. Tries came and the party started. Italy tried to rouse themselves for the last 10 minutes but it was way too late at that stage. Ireland have improved game by game and for the first time ever have won all their group matches in a Rugby World cup. 

We can now plan our trip to Wellington with the certainty that we'll see Ireland perform.