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Seeing the All Blacks play overseas has long been on John Bishop’s bucket list so this year’s three match northern tour to Wales, Scotland and England looked like just the ticket. The rugby was sublime, exasperating and sometimes amateurish. The tour arrangements were similar.
Four minutes to go in the final test against England at Twickenham and the All Blacks are clinging to a 25-18 lead, a man down with England rampant after coming back from 25-6.
Our boys are in the 22, and TJ Perenara is barking like a drover’s dog behind the pack urging them forward. You’ve got possession. Hold onto it and run the clock down. But no, the ball is passed back and someone kicks, a wobbly effort that doesn’t go out.
Of course, the English run it back. We are a man short in the backline and they are over. A try and a conversion secure a draw. The English fans around and behind me explode with joy.
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A draw is not a loss but blowing a 19-point lead is not a great result. Off-field, the performance of the tour operators was patchy too.
AllBlackTours.com (ABT) is the NZ Rugby Union’s commercial tour company. In the UK there are no public sales of test tickets. They are allocated to rugby clubs and other unions which is how the NZRU gets theirs.
ABT offered a 19-day package of tickets to the three matches, including accommodation, some meals and coach transport with time in Liverpool and York between games. Cost was nearly $20,000 (plus airfares). I said no.
John Bishop
John Bishop outside Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh.
Also on offer were two-night packages to each of the three games, ticket, accommodation, breakfasts, and a pre-match drinks function. Prices were between $1500 and $1749. I said I’ll take two of those and do my own thing before and between games.
I signed up online and paid by credit card only to get a nasty surprise in the form of credit card surcharges. No mention of that on the site. Most traders point this out and the Commerce Commission told me “an additional surcharge/fee …. should be clearly disclosed to avoid misleading consumers.” It noted that traders aren’t obliged to do so. ABT could easily have said on their site, “Credit card fees apply”.
Missing from the packages were on the day transfers between hotel and the test venue. ABT told me in their experience customers preferred to make their own way to the ground, soaking up the match day atmosphere in pubs, bars and cafes along the way.
John Bishop
All Blacks do the haka at Twickenham.
Perhaps so in Cardiff and Dublin, but in Edinburgh I doubted it and I was very dubious about London. Twickenham is out in the suburbs and getting there is a 50-minute train ride from central London although there were food and drink outlets between the station and the ground.
I discovered that ABT did provide a bus, but only for those on the 19-day package. Weekenders didn’t qualify. Fair enough but that is not consistent with the story about soaking up the match day atmosphere.
About a week before the Edinburgh test, and while I am in the UK a text arrives to say that all tickets will be issued electronically, no paper tickets.
ABT had not mentioned it before although I was not surprised. The UK is more advanced electronically than we are. To access the app and therefore the ticket an iPhone 11 or equivalent was required. I had one but it seems a bold assumption that everyone else did too.
John Bishop
Typical food outlet at Twickenham.
As it happened there was a problem with the Scottish app. I couldn’t make it work, and neither could the ABT people on tour. On match day an ABT staffer escorted about a dozen of us to the ground, and ensured we got in. The right thing to do and good service.
Entrance to Twickenham was also by app and an electronic ticket and that worked seamlessly.
At Edinburgh my seat is on the goal line – about a metre into the try zone. Described by ABT as a gold ticket, the view is reasonable.
At Twickenham I am in the stand behind the goal posts and only one row from the top. Officially a category 2 ticket. According to the English Rugby Union my seat has a face value of 153 pounds sterling – over NZ$300.
Fortuitously the All Blacks play to my end in the first half and score three tries. Only Reiko Ioane’s runaway effort is scored at the other end and the English score their last three tries at my end too.
The atmosphere at the games has all the big match tension I’d expected. The Flower of Scotland is played and sung at Murrayfield and the English singing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, is daunting at high volume.
I learned that shouting “let it out” in person at the ground at a line of running backs has no more effect that it does when in my chair in front of the TV at home. But it is emotionally more satisfying.
I went for the experience of being at the grounds where legends have played, and epic deeds have been done, and I loved all that.
Would I go again? Probably not, I’ve now been to the grounds I wanted to visit, and I don’t need to do it again. Both the ABs and ABT need to work on their game. Too often their respective performances were casual even amateurish.
John Bishop is a Wellington-based travel writer and rugby fan who travels on his own dime. See his work at eatdrinktravel.co.nz
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