Kaitaia man celebrates at Twickenham

WITH PRIDE: Rugby fan Northland's Colin Kitchen gets his hands on rugby's most prized trophy outside Twickenham Stadium after the All Blacks won the real Webb Ellis Cup. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

At least one Northlander got his hands on the gold Webb Ellis Cup after the victorious win by the All Blacks over arch Australian rivals at the Rugby World Cup.

Well it might have been a gold cardboard cut-out replica but for ardent Far North rugby fan Colin "Toss" Kitchen it was good enough.

Kaitaia's Mr Kitchen was one of the 80,000 crowd packed into Twickenham to watch the All Blacks withstand a rousingfightback from Australia before crushing the Wallabies 34-17 to become world champions for a record third time and the first team to win back-to-back titles.

"The atmosphere, well it's hard to explain. You really had to be there to feel the excitement and the passion. But I have to say it was fabulous," he said before boarding his plane home from Heathrow Airport yesterday.

"The crowd was amazing, just yelling and cheering."

A highlight was seeing the All Blacks perform the haka before their winning performance.

"It was magic and spine tingling stuff."

It is the fourth World Cup final Mr Kitchen has attended, having been in the crowd at the inaugural event in 1987, France 2007 and Auckland 2011.

The chief fire officer of the Kaitaia Fire Brigade, Mr Kitchen said he felt extremely proud to be a Kiwi when captain Ritchie McCaw spoke after the game and graciously spoke about the win and thanked the opposition team.

"It brought tears to your eye. It was fantastic and great to be there to witness a piece of history."

During the final he was seated near some Australian supporters, who became very vocal as the green and golds came within four points of the All Blacks during the second spell. "They were getting pretty excited and we were getting pretty nervous.

"I was worried ... we were so confident at 17-3 up, then the Aussies, they came back."

He was sitting in the crowd on the 22m line at the end of the pitch where there was plenty of scoring action including the Maa Nonu try, the drop kick by Dan Carter and the final try by Beauden Barrett.

"We hung around after the game and soaked up the atmosphere. It was an amazing experience."

Mr Kitchen celebrated the win well into the early hours and managed to get to the airport on time.

While enjoying a few "quiets" after the game the Aussie supporters had been gracious in defeat and there was some good banter, Mr Kitchen said.

He reckoned his nerves had been primed the week before when he watched the All Blacks' narrow semifinal win over South Africa.

During his three-week rugby holiday Mr Kitchen toured with fellow Northlanders Paul Dawson of Kaitaia and Cable Bay couple Dennis and Francis Smith.

On their travels they were joined by the parents of current and world champion All Black fullback Ben Smith, which gave them a different perspective on the World Cup.