John Roughan: Shrewd observations from a Mainlander amid the Rugby World Cup transport shambles

People queuing for trains at Kingsland station. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Opinion

My brother Mark is an astute observer of rugby. Coming from Christchurch where he could see the best rugby in the world until this season, it was a rare treat to have him at Eden Park for the opening of the Rugby World Cup.

For him it was a brief escape, not from earthquakes but from discussion of earthquakes.

Most Cantabrians, he says, are now into the cup, though they still have more urgent concerns. As time goes on they are worried at the lack of any sign of rebuilding in the city centre. He finds it depressing to drive past at night and see Christchurch's heart still dark.

Auckland's problems are minor by comparison. Mark was amused on Friday evening as we stood packed into a stationary train for 15 long minutes before it went at snail's pace to Mt Eden, and later, as we waited an hour and 20 minutes for a bus home.

He could not know how angry Aucklanders had a right to feel. What happened on cup opening night was no accident. It was the consequence of deliberate public transport promotion.

Free transport to the rugby, the promoters hoped, would show us how convenient their plans could be.

How foolish I felt. Looking at the faces around me I could tell all the Aucklanders were thinking the same thing: why had we believed them?

We had all driven to Eden Park for previous big matches without difficulty. We know where to find parking spots and walk to the ground.

As we waited in the crush afterwards, I didn't have the heart to tell Mark we could easily have taken the car. I appreciated instead his summary of the match we'd seen.

Tonga, he suspected, had decided at half-time they didn't want to be embarrassed by a cricket score and their coach, a wily former All Black, had sent them out in the second half to play a spoiler.

That they did, by lying down with injuries, slowing the game with scrum penalties and destroying the All Blacks' first-half rhythm.

We might see this often in the World Cup. Some teams, like Fiji and Namibia on Saturday afternoon and Japan in the game that followed, will play lovely fast, open, festive football.

When they get sunshine and crowds as effervescent as that at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday evening, those sorts of teams will make this month of rugby a joy.

But others will not play that way. A former England international on Sky Television's panel said after watching the first matches that northern sides would have to slow the game down.

That night we saw what he meant. England and Argentina bumbled their way through a game that was an insult to Dunedin's new stadium.

The saddest thing was to see how much Argentina has suffered from its exclusion from Southern Hemisphere competitions. Most of its players are on contracts to northern clubs and they play like it.

The next-saddest thing was to hear Sky's commentators pretending there was something good going on.

When Justin Marshall, a novice behind a microphone, observed that there was a lot of "negativity" out there, Tony Johnstone quickly corrected him. It was an "arm wrestle", TJ declared.

Poor Justin, who has known a few genuine arm wrestles in his day, formally withdrew his remark and probably fears for his new career.

Rugby in this country doesn't need hype. Leave that to Auckland's trains.