Tea, triumph and tee-off time

Ian MacRae watched the game at home then turned his attention to the golf green. Photo / Supplied

The No1 tee at Maraenui Golf Course was the scene of a Cup victory celebration for former Hawke's Bay Rugby Union chairman Ian MacRae, who played three matches for the All Blacks at grand-final venue Twickenham in the 1960s.

He'd watched the game at home with wife Marilyn, conceding he must have "drawn the short straw" in being New Zealand union president for three years between the All Blacks' 2011 and 2015 victories, instead of at the time of either one of them.

"A couple of rounds of teas, then toast, then we watched the game, and all done and dusted with a brunch," said Mr MacRae, reflecting on the start of the day.

Then it was off to golf, dressed in an All Blacks shirt - not the 2015 model but also not one from his own career - and armed with enough beers for the regular Sunday foursome to do the commemoration before teeing-off.

"We stood on the first tee and toasted the All Blacks," he said, in what became the only public record of his day across the fairways and greens, although simply put it was "average," and apparently not up to the standards of those wearing the All Blacks shirt a few hours earlier.

He'd known those standards were high, but said yesterday he'd copped a bit of flack for not being so confident before the match about the outcome, when he'd warned his mates that while the ABs had the goods, it was "50/50" and "anything can happen".

"It's wonderful for the country, as long as we don't get too cock-sure, and respect the team and the effort they put in," he said. "It's pretty immense ... The management set goals that are almost unattainable, and then they make the team attain them.

"I just wonder when it's going to end," he said. "You can't go on winning all of the time."

The tournament was much closer than many thought. "Another inch and they could have been beaten by South Africa.

"But what's impressed me most is how the overall standard has picked-up."

Meanwhile, Hawke's Bay Rugby Union chairman Brendan Mahony is looking forward to a financial trickle-down for grassroots rugby following the All Blacks' triumph successfully defending the William Webb Ellis trophy in the final yesterday.

Mr Mahony, who watched the game at home, celebrated with a glass of champagne and then hit the garden to tend the tomatoes, said "everything" had gone into the last four years as the New Zealand Rugby Union.

But it was often at the expense of other levels of the game, including his union's own lifeblood, the windfall which had been expected from a full season of Magpies' Ranfurly Shield matches and the home semifinal and final in the ITM Cup championship.

The crowds and revenue from those games was well down on what was expected, with numbers possibly affected by the rugby public taking time out between the end of The Rugby Championship on August 8 and the start of the World Cup on September 19, then turning their attention to the games 21,000km away.

Mr Mahony said that while sums were still being done, the Hawke's Bay union's returns from a season of 10 home matches wouldn't be as great as expected. "Don't get too excited about any great surplus, but it won't be a loss," he said.

As for the All Blacks' win and the outcome for the game, "It's certainly better than the other option. I would have been bitterly disappointed [if the All Blacks had been beaten], because the (New Zealand) union has put everything into it over the last four years."