They came, young and old, in their many thousands to Eden Park yesterday afternoon to celebrate the return of rugby to Auckland and to see for sure whether Beauden Barrett would run out wearing a Blues jersey or whether the All Black's shift from the Hurricanes was all some sort of cruel lockdown-induced dream.
In truth, he's been everywhere this week or so – kicking balls off a stand overlooking the perfect rectangle of grass (woefully underused since the Blues last played here on March 14) for a PR stunt, fronting the media and laying out a special welcome mat for another reasonably well-known recruit in the form of Dan Carter.
Barrett probably even put his hand up to fly the plane which did a low and dramatic flyover of the park – an act reminiscent of the extremely low flying jet which put the wind up the crowd at the 1995 World Cup final at Johannesburg's Ellis Park - and he certainly found himself in a tight spot when press-ganged by his former teammates into a celebration of Dane Coles' try.
He assumed he'd get the treatment at some stage and here it was in all its head-rubbing glory from Coles, TJ Perenara and Ngani Laumape. He took it as well as could be expected.
"Give it to Beauden," was an early call from someone in the crowd almost as soon as the teams ran on to the field for Super Rugby Aotearoa's second game after Saturday night's thriller between the Highlanders and Chiefs in Dunedin, and while the man of the moment probably didn't get the ball in his hands enough back at fullback, there was no doubt about his influence on the game.