KAPAI'S CORNER: Sometimes it's not just the Irish who are lucky

VIVA Le All Whites! What a gutsy goal, what a gutsy goalkeeper and what a gutsy group of Kiwi boys who chiselled out a draw against Italy.
There is something special that happens when the underdogs face the big boys from Europe and we saw it again in Rotorua.
There is something about the Irish and the Maori that makes them sit well side by side, especially at a rugby match when we watched the Bro Blacks take on Danny's Boys at Rotorua Stadium.
Maybe it's because they both share the same sense of loss when it comes to their colonial cousins trying to take away their land and language, or maybe it's because they both like a good sing-song and a few laughs.
Whatever it is, when I sat down next to an Irish Tauranga City Council worker and her engineer husband, I knew we were both in for a top test match.
It all started when Tame Iti sat right down in front of us and she casually leaned over to her hubby and whispered, "now there's a fantastic face paint".
It was game on for us both.
And what a great game it was. Just like the All Whites, the Bro Blacks came out firing like a Mark 1 Zephyr and it really did knock the Italians and the Irish on their backsides.
Then the green machine fired up and they started kicking our boys out of the game, much to the dismay of our busload of supporters from Tauranga Moana.
HoriBop started to get louder as the Irish started to draw closer and at one stage I am sure I saw one of his jandals take aim at his team, like the Iraqi protester when he hurled his shoe at another Hori (George Bush). But they made Jamie Joseph send on one of Rangataua's favourite sons, Ruki Tipuna, who soon turned the boys around and got the Mark 1 firing on all fours again.
That was about when the Irish council worker moaned to her hubby about the stupid flanker Niall Ronan, who let the ball slip through his legs, allowing the Maori loose forward Lowe to score. "Stupid bugger should have kept his legs closed."
 The crowd erupted with applause as Willie Ripiha converted the winning try. Hori howled with joy like a Danish/Maori goal scorer, thankfully without taking off his Swanndri and causing us to choke on our chips and Toko had a smile on his face wider than the Maungatapu causeway. "Tihei mauri ora," yelled Iti and the Irish lady nodded her head in approval.
"Do you understand Maori?" I innocently inquired.
"To be sure, to be sure, bro, especially when it's in Irish," she sweetly replied ...
Not to be outdone I came back at her with: "What do you call 15 Maori in a winning rugby team?"
Before I could answer "Bro Blacks," she came back with her own question: "What do you call 15 rugby players sitting around a television watching a World Cup final?"
"All Blacks!" she howled.
"Do you always answer a question with a question?" I complained.
"Why do you ask?" with a look in her eye that told me it was full-time.
What a rucking good game it turned out to be. We may have won on the field but the Irish won a lot of friends and respect off the field, especially from a busload of Tauranga supporters.
And it may just take the luck of the Irish for the Bro Blacks to beat the Poms on Wednesday and the All Whites to win the World Cup.
Then who should I run into outside after the game, waving her flag? The lovely lady from Ireland.
When I walked up to her with my $2 tino flag and asked if she would she be interested in swapping flags to remember a test match between two gutsy teams, her answer amazed me.
"To be sure," she said, hers carried halfway around the world from a pub in Galway, and mine carried all the way from the $2 shop in Tauranga.
Sometimes it's not just the Irish who are lucky and sometimes miracles do happen. Just ask the All Whites.
broblack@xtra.co.nz