Rugby: Monster win tops off charity bash

When a 14m-tall Jonah Lomu scored the winning Bledisloe Cup try on Auckland's giant Imax screen, the crowd yelled as if they were on the sidelines.

The spectacular game gave the capacity audience gathered at the charity event organised by the New Zealand Herald Foundation plenty of opportunity to dance in the aisles and break into haka.

The small but noisy Australian contingent dotted throughout the cinema consoled themselves that they had helped raise $17,000 for charities.

The pre-match function at the entertainment centre's Cirque Bar was a sea of black and white with plenty of rugby jerseys, silly hats and face paint.

The few supporters wearing green and gold jerseys took the opportunity to remind the locals of the Rugby World Cup final - also shown at Imax by the foundation, but on that occasion without an All Black in sight.

Comedian Mike King warmed up the 450-strong crowd before the live kickoff, provided through a linkup with Sky Sport.

The audience rose to their feet to give hearty renditions of the national anthems and the haka as if they were in the stands at Stadium Australia.

Then they settled into their theatre seats to watch players the size of a three-storey building pounding towards them.

Saturday night's game was the first time the foundation had directly linked Sky Television's live broadcast to the Imax theatre in Queen St.

Foundation director Richard Holden thanked Sky, Imax and Multimedia for installing special cameras to screen the game.

"It was a great night and a fabulous result," Mr Holden said.

The image took up two-thirds of the 20m by 27m screen.

The foundation was launched in May last year by the Herald to raise funds for charity. It organises and hosts special events celebrating New Zealand and its successes, the proceeds going into a fund and distributed to needy groups.