All aboard sweet chariot as England aim for home glory

England fan Paul Bains blogs about the oval-ball game and holds a Twitter rugby chat every Tuesday. Photo / Greg Bowker

Paul Bains is a passionate member of the Rose Army and would have loved to watch his England rugby team compete for the World Cup on home soil.

But being on the other side of the world has not stopped the 41-year-old from Yorkshire from doing everything he can to get behind them.

"It's England No1 all the way, always has been. It's where you're born, it's just who you are," he said.

"I think everyone's saying it's such a wonderful World Cup, that all the fans are enjoying it, having a lot of fun. You've got full stadiums, you've got lots of noise; I think it's going to be a special tournament."

After living in Singapore and Hong Kong for just over nine years, Mr Bains moved to Auckland in July last year with his wife and two daughters. They live in Meadowbank.

Having been a rugby fanatic since his school days, he was quick to jump into the Auckland and New Zealand rugby culture, and regularly attends Blues, ITM Cup and All Blacks games at Eden Park.

Mr Bains, who describes himself as a "nerdy rugby nut", blogs about the oval-ball game and holds a Twitter rugby chat every Tuesday at 8pm. He has close to 10,000 followers on Twitter.

It was this online profile that got the attention of telecommunications company O2, which has recruited English rugby supporters on social media to push the Rose Army message.

Mr Bains, along with other passionate fans online, has been asking people to #WearTheRose in support of England at the Rugby World Cup.

"Basically, what we're doing is encouraging people to post pictures, do little videos, put some messages of support on Facebook and Twitter."

He has had his tweets projected on to the O2 dome in London, and is on a mission to get people to take pictures of themselves wearing an English rose pin badge.

He is finding this quite tough in New Zealand, for obvious reasons.

"Apart from my daughter taking them to school, where her friends are having fun putting them on, there's been a lot of rejections, a lot of people saying no they won't do it."

Mr Bains predicts England will finish top of their pool after a five- to 10-point win over Wales this weekend.

He thinks the English will make it all the way to the semifinals, where they will get knocked out by Ireland.

"England can win it. They're one of about five or six teams that can win it. They just probably won't, unfortunately."

His other five possible winners are the All Blacks, Ireland, Australia, Wales and South Africa.

"Those teams can all win it, definitely. Because at the end of the day you only have to win a couple of games on the trot and you're in."

He said that while some people were suggesting France as a winner, he wasn't so sure. He was also starting to have doubts about Wales after their injury troubles.

Mr Bains said that while the upsets seen over the weekend - Japan over South Africa and Georgia over Tonga - were great for the tournament, he did not think they would impact the knockout rounds.

"You may have one interesting team in the last eight, but you're going to see the same crowd there and if you come out top of your group, you're in with a good shout."

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