Rugby: Let's hear it for the fans

By Teri Fitsell

It was by no means a capacity crowd at Eden Park on Saturday for the NPC final, but at least it was a voluble one.

For a ground often ridiculed as having as much atmosphere as the moon, Saturday night's fever pitch fans provided a welcome change.

Their efforts came despite all the pre-match own goals.

* The Leo the Lion mascot incident - when the Auckland Rugby Union foolishly attempted to bar Leo from the sidelines on the grounds their own seagull mascot had had its feathers ruffled by the Harbour Master in the semifinal.

* The pre-kick-off firework display taking place in broad daylight.

* A pretty lacklustre game, until the last 10 minutes.

Still, the much maligned Auckland crowd - and their Wellingtonian counterparts - turned up to grab their share of the glory.

Commonsense prevailed when Leo was allowed to lead Wellington on to the pitch and circle the ground with pride.

Indeed, at one stage, the ground announcer even requested that he return to the terrace end to give the fans something to shout about during a particularly flat patch.

And shout they did.

So why oh why at the end of the game were the fans treated like gatecrashers at a party?

Most of them obeyed the continued requests to stay off the pitch, and most wanted to stay for the cup presentation.

Why then, did rugby officials not give them what they wanted instead of starting the endless speechifying, and thanking of sponsors whose names were plastered all over the place anyway?

If you're not going to let the fans on the field to join in the cup presentation, then at least take the cup presentation to them.

In other words, the team win the game, you give them the cup, they do a lap of honour. The crowd goes wild. Simple.

Instead what happened? The team won the game; the speeches started; the crowd waited ... and then most went home before the cup was hoisted.

Retiring All Black and Auckland great Michael Jones had the right idea. After the final whistle, he hugged his team-mates then headed straight for the crowd in an obvious gesture of gratitude.

He toured the sidelines shaking hands and signing autographs, as did many of the other players, before being ushered back to the podium by some besuited types for no other reason than to listen to still more speeches.

All season the Auckland Rugby Union has pleaded "come on be the noise."

Now that they have, what about "let's hear it for the fans" instead?