There was a sighting of three Frenchmen, some Irish and an Australian but I couldn't find them. Nor did the Gisborne-based Namibian team turn up. They had been taken hunting the day before and bagged three deer.
But the Coasters didn't mind; it is, after all, a long long way around. And at least their weather didn't let them down.
There are few places as beautiful in the morning sun as the bays and bluffs of this coast with the surf crashing in.
The set-up for this match, though, was far from typical.
They were charging at the gate and blocking free views with a row of buses parked at the northern end of the ground.
Ominously, from my point of view, a big screen was parked on the perimeter of the field and emitting music at raucous decibels.
Organiser Ann McGuire, who runs tours from her home in the Bay, said "Many of these people haven't seen an outdoor screen before, except on television".
Video trumps reality, even here.
The plan was to show the match on the screen, then switch to Maori Television's coverage of World Cup games. But she said they had just been told the channel didn't have live rights to those games and Sky had been unable to step in.
No matter. The Real NZ trailer was here, hot dogs and candyfloss were on sale and hangi was cooking.
A public health tent was checking blood pressure and later I needed its sunblock.
As a curtain-raiser to the big game, Tolaga Bay Area School staged Ki-o-rahi, a ball game played in concentric circles that involves touch rugby with elements of netball, baseball and cricket.
The game is said to predate colonisation but was unknown to Maori until quite recently.
"We didn't know it existed until about five years ago," Ann said, "when a French team wanted a game".
Evidently the game had been taken to France by Maori soldiers in World War I and had caught on there.
The Poverty Bay team bus arrived during the school's kapa haka. When the team took the field they stood, in red, with arms linked to face the haka from Ngati Porou East Coast in their sky blue.
The Bay boys strained forward to the challenge and the haka leaders advanced right to their noses. If only the All Blacks' opponents knew to do this.
The game was better and faster than you would expect from glimpses of the third division on television.
The Bay had a bigger pack and an assured goal kicker. At halftime they led 22-13.
But in the second half, the Coast stopped giving penalties and ran the ball. They scored and scored again.
"Nga-ti, Nga-ti," the ground announcer boomed.
The Bay came back with a converted try to regain the lead. Then the Coast crossed again to come home 30-29, the first time in 10 years they have beaten the Bay.
It was as good as any match on the second weekend of this wonderful World Cup.
