However on the Island of Borneo, there was only one semi professional rugby team. That's when the Sabbah Warriors came in and wanted to promote the game to kids who idolised the stars of the English Premier League.
After a brief chat I was invited for the social down at an Irish bar on the waterfront.
As I made my way down to the bar in searing 30 degree heat, I wondered who was I going to be greeted by. After all the team had only been about for a few months, and only had a few members. Luckily I was greeted by 30 passionate rugby fans, all donning their team kit and cheering on both the All Blacks and the French in two separate camps. We even had a stereotypical French man shouting "allez Les Bleus!" at regular intervals to set the tone.
As well, the bar was crammed full of expats from Australia, France, America, and England, all watching the rugby.
The whole event was put on by the rugby side to promote their team, and it was a real success, with everyone enjoying the complementary drinks from the team's sponsor, and eating down hot dogs from the pub's chef.
As it got towards game time, the atmosphere turned even more rowdy with both sets of fans breaking into booming chants after the highly-charged haka & the united v-shaped defiance formation from the French.
The game itself was hardly the most exciting World Cup Final, with the French coming straight out of the blocks. The French played their best rugby of the tournament, and looked much improved after unconvincing wins against England and Wales. However the All Blacks looked nervy, and with Piri Weepu missing badly from a penalty kick, the nerves immediately transferred to the bar and Eden Park.
The All Blacks started to get into their game, battling against the aggression of the French who were closing down and getting wide quickly, limiting their opponents' expansive rugby. The breakthrough came from a set piece as a well-worked line out led to Tony Woodcock crashing over with relative ease. The relief was palpable in the bar, it must have been tenfold at Eden park. Weepu missed the conversion, again to place nerves on a high.
The tie continued in a similar vein, with the All Blacks' attack being stopped time and time again by the French forward, and when it came to the scrumming the French were penalised by South African Craig Joubert.
Positionally Weepu was strong, but his kicks at goal were nothing short of awful and, slowly but surely, the nerves came back for the All Blacks.
Fly-half Aaron Cruden hyper-extended his knee horribly, to a collective of wincing "ahhs" from the assembled at the bar. On came fourtth-choice Stephen Donald, who was kicking back at home before injuries to Colin Slade and Dan Carter forced Graham Henry's hand.
His contribution would turn out to be the most crucial for the All Blacks, and will surely go down in Kiwi folklore.
With the French penalised in the scrum Donald had the easiest of kicks to give the All Blacks an 8-0 lead. However the French had other ideas and with half an hour to go, French captain Dusautoir slid over the whitewash to the shock Eden Park. Trinh-Duc converted, leaving the match on a knife edge at 8-7.
The French support in the bar was in full voice, whilst most All Blacks fans were silent, knowing a French turnaround was on the cards and hoping for a miracle turn around from the men in black.
The tension now was at heart attack-inducing levels in the sweaty bar in Kota Kinabalu. With 16 minutes left on the clock, Trinh-Duc tried his luck with a penalty from just inside halfway only to push it wide, much to the joy of the All Blacks fans assembled and to the woe of the rowdy French supporters. The All Blacks went into crisis mode, punting anything remotely near their twenty-two deep into French territory.
But with boots into territory came more unrelenting French attack.
Within the final minutes the French launched a 18-phase attack, which was greeted by shocked silence by Eden Park. Would this World Cup Dream end in a nightmare?
Thankfully a final kick into French territory wound up the final minutes. Joubert blew up for a French infindgement and the relief in the bar and at Eden Park was palpable, people overjoyed to see a nation so eager to win the Webb Ellis.
As Richie lifted up the magnificent trophy, and as the fireworks lit up the TV screen I could only be overjoyed for the inhabitants of rugby country.
I wondered how long the celebrations would last for.
