There was plenty of talk about groins too, the vast majority of it sympathetic. That's another thing about the Irish. They are drawn towards gloom. Something in either the Celtic GPS or the sweltering temperatures along Galway Bay make them good people to be around when the chips are down. They inhabit a natural pessimism that still leaves space for surprises.
That said, those chips have to be washed down with something. By 3pm in Dunedin, many of the bars in the central city were already down to plastic cups. Locals said the chill in the wind was gone.
The Irish said they had taken it.
Keith from Belfast was there; now of Geneva. Tiernan from Dublin was there; now in Twickenham. Partaking in the odd bit of rugby espionage. It was a regular ex-pat-a-rama. Keith's friend turned up. Had been walking off a hangover on the sands of St Clair and run into Irish Lock Paul O'Connell. Reading on his Kindle.
William from Munster was there; still thought he was actually in Munster. But dead keen to see other parts of the county once he had retired.
Here too was the nomadic power of the Irish coming to the fore. As one followed them towards Dunedin's new stadium, past wide-open doors to student flats and high balls going up in the middle of Anzac Ave, you were struck by how infectious they were. In a good way. Like an airborne contagion of charm... Angela's Ashes on a mobility scooter. Plenty of Kiwis with a little shamrock in their family trees had jumped on the bandwagon, and rightly so.
But one story stood out amongst all the crack.
In a small North Island town whose name he couldn't remember, Tiernan had been handcuffed and placed in the backseat of a police car for being drunk & disorderly. Asked the policeman preparing to slam the door shut if he wouldn't mind taking his phone out of his back pocket and snapping a picture of him. Arrested.
"For what?" the policeman asked.
"For my Facebook page."
The Cop not only took the photo but, after muttering words unable to be reprinted here, decided to let him go altogether. He even showed me the pic to prove it.
"Only in NZ..." Teirnan grinned.
That's the Irish for you. Cheeky even when they're in chains.
Wales Beware.
* Follow Matt across New Zealand at his RWC Road Trip blog or on twitter @KeaKaharoadtrip.
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