(By Grant)  As a New Zealander abroad you miss things from Home, and as a NZ rugby fan in Europe I was a little disappointed to find myself on the wrong side of Europe for the Rugby World Cup where the New Zealand All Blacks would be defending their title, so it was quite the consolation to meet Sir Graham Henry (above) in Dubrovnik, the man who had coached us to the 2011 win!

The pub we met him in was ‘The Gaffe” which was our pick of the two Irish bars that are around  the corner from each other in Dubrovnik, it’s a non smoking bar, which is rare in Croatia and has good pub food so a good option with kids.

We watched the start of the RWC (Rugby World Cup) in Omis, normally on my laptop at any bar or cafe with decent WIFI, but once in Dubrovnik we watch almost every game in The Gaffe, and so when NZ made the final we knew exactly where we would be for the grand finale.

On the night of the final The Gaffe filled up with NZers (or Kiwi’s as we’re known) as well as a good group of international rugby fans from Ireland England and Wales etc and a single table of Australians (just two Aussies really supported by their Croatian friends) who had brought their flag a small kangaroo and a koala as a centrepiece the ribbing between us and the Aussies started immediately, but it quickly became apparent that one of the Aussies was going to be gracious in victory or defeat and the other, not so much.

The game was as good a final as I’ve ever seen, especially from a Kiwi point of view we scored first never surrendered the lead but the Aussies fought back from 21 – 3 down to 21 – 17 bringing us all to the edge of our seats, but that was to be Australia’s last points where as the All Blacks were far from finished, a drop goal a long penalty and a brilliant last try with a minute to go sealed the deal and had every NZ supporter punching the air and yelling their heads off.

We were lucky enough to meet some great people that night, another NZ family also touring Europe with their young girl, who is also doing NZ correspondence schooling like our boys, so effectively a school mate, she and Lucas were fast friends and spent all night drawing together and raiding the local sweet shop too.

We met a great Irish couple, the guy could really sing and in the last hour before the bar closed we had them silence the music so we could listen to him sing unaccompanied (other than our out of tune backing vocals of course) Jacob was caught up in the atmosphere and was completely at home with the adults all night, he really enjoyed the rugby having been only vaguely interested up till the final, but in a bar of screaming fans he was swept up in the emotion as much as anyone.

Our Australian fellows reacted true to their early form, the older grumpier one left (taking flag and soft toys with him) before the final whistle and the younger gracious one took the loss on his chin the blow softened greatly by a sneaky bet he laid on Aussie losing by 10 or more which had netted him $400, as he said he’d have rather won, but it was a lot better than nothing!

So New Zealand are the first country to win Back to Back Rugby World Cups and we all enjoyed our moment in the All Blacks reflected Glory, in short Best World Cup EVER!

(By Grant)  As a New Zealander abroad you miss things from Home, and as a NZ rugby fan in Europe I was a little disappointed to find myself on the wrong side of Europe for the Rugby World Cup where the New Zealand All Blacks would be defending their title, so it was quite the consolation to meet Sir Graham Henry (above) in Dubrovnik, the man who had coached us to the 2011 win!

The pub we met him in was ‘The Gaffe” which was our pick of the two Irish bars that are around  the corner from each other in Dubrovnik, it’s a non smoking bar, which is rare in Croatia and has good pub food so a good option with kids.

We watched the start of the RWC (Rugby World Cup) in Omis, normally on my laptop at any bar or cafe with decent WIFI, but once in Dubrovnik we watch almost every game in The Gaffe, and so when NZ made the final we knew exactly where we would be for the grand finale.

On the night of the final The Gaffe filled up with NZers (or Kiwi’s as we’re known) as well as a good group of international rugby fans from Ireland England and Wales etc and a single table of Australians (just two Aussies really supported by their Croatian friends) who had brought their flag a small kangaroo and a koala as a centrepiece the ribbing between us and the Aussies started immediately, but it quickly became apparent that one of the Aussies was going to be gracious in victory or defeat and the other, not so much.

The game was as good a final as I’ve ever seen, especially from a Kiwi point of view we scored first never surrendered the lead but the Aussies fought back from 21 – 3 down to 21 – 17 bringing us all to the edge of our seats, but that was to be Australia’s last points where as the All Blacks were far from finished, a drop goal a long penalty and a brilliant last try with a minute to go sealed the deal and had every NZ supporter punching the air and yelling their heads off.

We were lucky enough to meet some great people that night, another NZ family also touring Europe with their young girl, who is also doing NZ correspondence schooling like our boys, so effectively a school mate, she and Lucas were fast friends and spent all night drawing together and raiding the local sweet shop too.

We met a great Irish couple, the guy could really sing and in the last hour before the bar closed we had them silence the music so we could listen to him sing unaccompanied (other than our out of tune backing vocals of course) Jacob was caught up in the atmosphere and was completely at home with the adults all night, he really enjoyed the rugby having been only vaguely interested up till the final, but in a bar of screaming fans he was swept up in the emotion as much as anyone.

Our Australian fellows reacted true to their early form, the older grumpier one left (taking flag and soft toys with him) before the final whistle and the younger gracious one took the loss on his chin the blow softened greatly by a sneaky bet he laid on Aussie losing by 10 or more which had netted him $400, as he said he’d have rather won, but it was a lot better than nothing!

So New Zealand are the first country to win Back to Back Rugby World Cups and we all enjoyed our moment in the All Blacks reflected Glory, in short Best World Cup EVER!