Watching the All Blacks play a Rugby World Cup game at home has to be one of the top things for any rugby fan to aspire to. So, when I saw that the All Blacks were playing against France on Saturday night, I decided to fly up to Auckland a day early and see if I could find a ticket for the game.

Fortunately for me, there was no problem changing the flight, and only a $20NZ change fee. So, I found a motel room and decided to go for it.

At the airport, I saw a group of guys wearing shirts that made me chuckle – they were from a rugby club in Memphis, and their shirts had a large image of Elvis sporting Maori tattoos. After the flight, I found myself walking over to the baggage lockers behind a few guys from that club. I caught up to them and complimented them on their shirts. I mentioned that I was planning to try to attend the game, and, as it turned out, they had an extra ticket.

It was a total carnival atmosphere both in town and at the stadium, as you can see from the photos. I met Chris from Memphis at the stadium, and it turned out that the seats were absolutely awesome – six rows from the field, right by the 22 meter line. The game was awesome, All Blacks won, their captain Richie McCaw played his 100th match, it was almost too good to be true! I’ll be uploading some pics soon!