greetings from Tondu

hi all,

got back home on wednesday after 40 hours of travelling - argh!!!!!!!!!!!!! (auckland to sydney to bancok to london).

saw a few of the players in auckland before we left (ryan, o'gara, greenwood etc.). spoke to ryan and he said a few of the boys had stayed behind just to chill out for a few days or flown to fiji or hawaii before going home. also saw jeremy pugh walking around in the rain with shorts and flip flops on !!, and gary jones

plum said he saw dwayne the night after the last test with a plaster cast on his hand !!!!!!!!!!

on a tv programme in nz andy haden said that after the first test alistair cambell went into the changing room (when the boys were soaking wet, cold and totally dejected) and said "i knew you were goin to loose, i could see it in your eyes". so neil back got up and walked up to him face to face and said "what can you see in my eyes now cambell" ?. and a.c. said "i don't know" and n.b. said "i'll tell you what’s in my eyes – it’s hatred. hatred for you" !!

a friend of mine from northampton said he'd spoken to geech after the 3rd test and geech said the other coaches had tried to persuade woodward not to pick wilkinson at all (or at centre), nor neil back, nor robinson at full back, nor josh on the wing etc. etc. but he ignored them all and did everything his way.

when i met sq i asked him what dewi and barnes were like and he said they were great and he winds up dewi that the reason he always had his socks rolled down was that he didn't have any calf muscles and sq said that dewi always bites at that one :-)

had hospitality before the last test and guscott spoke before the match and he really doesn't like woodward. Ian Kirkpatrick and ian jones spoke after the match and were really biased towards n.z. i.k. said he thought the ref. was ok so people booed and then i.j. said the ref. was poor so people cheered but then said he thought he was poor because he sin binned the n.z. players and didn’t give n.z. enough pens. so people booed. The one negative thing about the new zealanders is they’re really biased when it comes to sport and they’re bad winners and terrible losers. Plum and his mate adam ended up in with the n.z. fans in the last test and it nearly all kicked off because the n.z. fans were winding them up every time n.z. scored or the lions missed a tackle or dropped a ball. Warren gatland asked me how the fans had been because he was worried about them because they’ve got a bad reputation. I said they’d been ok and he said they can get really nasty if they lose. I remember watching the manawatu game and (when cobain came on) the commentators said “now we’ve got a bluddy aussie coming on – god knows how he can play for the british lions. Bluddy hypocrites !!. they’ve raped the south seas of all the decent players and put them in a new Zealand shirt for the last 30 years and then they criticise us !!. unbelievable !!
anyway, back to the hospitality - willie john and colin meads answered questions as well and meads said that years ago the only coach they had was the one they sat in and took them to the game :-). (i read gareth edwards autobiography and he said before ray williams developed coaching they didn't have a proper international coach in the 60's and after they had a coach and used to do training sessions before the game the scotland team used to accuse them of cheating !!). meads then said that in later years when they toured that had just 30 players and 2 coaches but he didn't know whet the other bloke did. I got willie john’s autograph and said to colin meads that I didn’t need his as I’d got it before and he (jokingly said) yeh I know, I’m fed up of bluddy seeing you :-)

meads said he wanted everybody to go back to the uk and say that nz should have the world cup in 2011 (instead of s.a. or japan) but i don't think they'd be able to cope with it. there were 30,000 lions fans in n.z. and they couldn't cope with the people and didn't have enough hotels in christchurch or wellington (the capital) which is why 1,500 of us were on the ship. and we drunk a few pubs dry. the stadiums aren't big enough either - jade stadium (Christchurch) only holds about 30,000, the westpac (welly) about 35,000 (and is a nightmare to get out of because there's only 1 exit) and eden park about 40,000. they’d never cope with the all the matches or the people of a world cup. The fans ploughed £130M into the economy but the swines still wanted $25 airport tax per person when we left :-) and we were only allowed 20kg baggage per person and one of the blokes in my tour party had baggage of about 35kg and they wanted him to pay $900 (£360) excess !!! so he left some of his clothes there.

funniest thing from the trip - before the second test, capt. alfie said to the team "boys, i've got 2 final words for you" ............ "dont fcukin panic" (typical sarn boy :-) )

it was a fantastic trip, and n.z. is a beautiful country and I can’t wait for s.a. (willie john said that s.a. is a wonderful country and if were up to him, he'd hold the world cup there every year.

So that’s the end of the season (in which I watched 66 games of rugby) and I’ll be glad of a couple of quiet weekends but I can’t wait for the start of the new season – anyone going to Ljubljana ?.

Fantastic stuff TT. It's been great reading. Thanks.

Enjoyed reading all your posts TT, Thank you.

TonduTurk wrote: cheers all. i've got a few more stories from the boxing nite and martin jonson's dinner so i'll post them when i get chance. all the best, t.t.

Looking forward to reading them TT.

Neutral wrote: oh yes tondu it was a great trip,Adam here.Another memorable part of the trip was you doing air guitar in the Courtney Arms the Friday before the Wellighton test,we did have a few tho,lol!!!!

air guitar !!!! - me !!! - i don't remember that -i must have been drunk !! :-). i hope you haven't got any photos !! :-)
great to meet you ad. how's plum ?. did he find that loaf of bread ? :-)
meet any lady-boys in bankok ? :-)