After 24 years New Zealand did it….just!

By Caron Beith

After 45 days it’s all over. New Zealand are Rugby World Champions after 24 years in the waiting!  And well deserved. 

A gutsy, gritty finish to a fantastic Final. They have been the best team throughout the whole tournament. France though last Sunday were amazing and impressive. Rougerie, Trinh-Duc, Yachvili and the incredible Thierry Dusautoir put in inspirational efforts. New Zealand had to work harder than they expected.

Even after a late night out on Saturday, I was up early on Sunday to see the finale to this hard-fought tournament – expecting it to be an easy walk in the park for the Kiwis over a relaxing breakfast!  How wrong I was and something must have got lost in translation!

Tense? It was excruciating, a rugby rollercoaster that carried me, and everyone else watching along with it.  Not so relaxing a breakfast for me after all.

Was the Final the greatest game of Rugby Union ever?  It probably comes close. Not because of the scoreline, but because of a French team which no one gave a hope of winning the World Cup against the might of the All Blacks, coming so close to immortality.

So, probably the noisiest party in Auckland’s 170-year-old history is still on-going; and countless hangover headaches across the land will last long into this week – good for them!  This massive win might help to heal the wounds left by the Christchurch earthquake and the Pike River mining disaster of 2011.

The Rugby World Cup is now firmly established as one of the world’s premier sporting tournaments with a cumulative global television audience of over four billion!  Global brand Heineken has already confirmed their renewed sponsorship of the 2015 Finals in England, before this year’s tournament had even ended!

Digital media was an integral part of Heineken’s activation during the 2011 World Cup – entitled ‘This is the Game’. 

 

It included digital content featuring rugby legends Will Carling, Zinzan Brooke, Matt Burke, Scott Quinnell and Rob Henderson as well as entertainment and sporting celebrities like Stephen Fry and Rio Ferdinand. Fans have been able to engage with the content across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter (#TITG)

Heineken believe the RWC2015 in England will bring even further exciting and innovative on-line opportunities.  I have no doubt they are right.

….only four years to go before we find out and go through it all again here in England! 

I can’t wait.