While the Rugby World Cup 2011 winners and fans scream, cheer, cry and throw their arms around one another on October 23, Petone engraver Peter Campbell will be carefully etching the name of the winning team on the Webb Ellis Cup.
Mr Campbell, who has a holiday home in Gladstonewhere he spends many weekends, was contacted by Rugby World Cup organisers and asked to apply for the job.
"I was asked if I was interested and, of course, I was, so they just needed to know that I could handle time pressure and filming pressure, so they did a dummy run at the Bledisloe Cup where I had 10 minutes to get the cup engraved and back to the presentation area. After that they called me and said, 'Welcome to the team'."
As at the Bledisloe Cup, he also has 10 minutes from the time the final whistle blows to engrave the Webb Ellis Cup and get it down to the presentation area.
After 39 years in the trade and having engraved the Ranfurly Shield, Wellington Rugby Union's Jubilee Cup, and Lord of the Rings jewellery, he says this job is his biggest yet. "Initially I was playing it down a bit, but then people started congratulating me, so I realised it was obviously a bit more than something I could just be blase about. It's the penultimate act of the Rugby World Cup."
With cameras around him and the tight deadline, he is trying not to think about the pressure.
"I'm not thinking about it at the moment, but at the time I can imagine it will be pretty stressful. I will be concentrating on that small area of space, so I will be oblivious to everything happening around me."
Being a rugby fan and a proud Kiwi, he hopes the name he engraves will be New Zealand's.
"Of course, I hope to be engraving the words 'New Zealand', not only because it's a lovely, easy name to engrave with lots of straight up and down letters, but also because it's us.
