The All Blacks play their final pool match against Tonga at St James' Park in Newcastle on Saturday morning NZ time. McCaw and company should enjoy St James. It is the home of English Premier League club Newcastle and can produce quite the atmosphere (although the local football club hasn't had much to cheer about for more than a few seasons now!).
But the atmosphere was certainly humming overnight when South Africa played Scotland there. Newcastle's proximity to the Scottish border ensured plenty of fans made the short trek south - close to 100,000 of them!
WELCOME TO DARLINGTON
The new All Blacks base of Darlington in the north of England is very excited to have the All Blacks in town.
About 18 months ago, Danny Brown, the director of rugby at the National League One club Darlington Mowden Park, got a telephone call. It was the organisers of England 2015, bearing good news: they had been approved as a team training base for this year's World Cup.
Brown waited patiently to hear which team they had been assigned. From the other end of the line came the words: "New Zealand". Brown knew that from the moment he put the phone down that nothing at their small but ambitious rugby club would quite be the same again.
"It's wonderful," says Bill Dixon, the leader of Darlington Council. "To pull the All Blacks. It's a real coup to get them. There's a fair rugby community in the area, and it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of people here."
If preparations are anything to go by, Darlington is determined to make the most of it. An All Blacks flag flies from the Town Hall mast. There are banners, tarted-up shop windows, a rugby-themed street theatre performance in the town centre.
Darlington lies in the heart of Durham mining country, but has no mines of its own.
It has a steam locomotive museum, a Buddhist centre, rich industrial heritage and according to the British Telegraph newspaper a "thriving gay scene". In the middle of town is a handsome cobbled town square and a covered market selling several dozen varieties of pies.
There's also South Park which is not a TV show in this case but rather "one of the prettiest urban parks in the North East" of England. To contrast that, the Telegraph describes the Darlington Town Hall from which the All Blacks flag currently flutters as "one of the ugliest public buildings anywhere in the western world".
All 4,000 free tickets for a kids' coaching session with All Blacks players on Thursday - their only open session throughout the whole tournament - were snapped up in the space of 24 hours as Darlington goes All Blacks crazy.
BANZAI BLOSSOMS
They've done it again. If Japan wasn't already considered the story of this tournament (so far), it has to be now. Overnight, while you were tucked up, they defeated Samoa 26-5 to secure their second shock win in Pool B and keep alive a previously improbable appearance in the World Cup quarter finals. Go you Brave Blossoms! In contrast, Samoa's disappointing campaign continued. They didn't help their cause with a rash of yellow cards in an ill-disciplined display.
Match report
BUILDING BOKS
You don't poke a sleeping bear. Ok, they're Springboks, not bears. But South Africa is a proud rugby nation and the wake-up call delivered by Japan in the opening match of Pool B rocked them to the core. The first response was a 46-6 thumping of Samoa where the Boks looked frighteningly cohesive and mighty keen.
They followed that up overnight with a comprehensive 34-16 win over Scotland - the team most tipped to extend them. Watch out, you can hear the hoof prints coming.
Match report
