Well i'm not sure if any TPE members from the northern hemisphere know, or even care, about the Rugby World Cup final in a couple days..

Anyway, for the uninitiated, rugby or rugby union as some call it, is our national sport here in NZ. It's something 99% of our country is, and always has been very proud and very passionate about. It's the most popular and played sport here, and it's every single young boys dream to play for our national team – The All Blacks.

Throughout history our beloved All Blacks have been the best team in the world generally. We have a better record against any other country in the world and would love to keep it that way.

Usually the 3 best teams in the world are all southern hemisphere ones – NZ, Australia and Sth Africa – with which their is always great rivalry, great games and the occasional dust up!

1987 brought about the beginning of a world championship tournament called the RWC, which is played every 4 years. It was here in NZ and the all blacks won it.

Since then – despite almost always being the tournament favourites – we have failed. I don't just mean failed either, i mean FAILED!

1991 we lost fair and square to australia in the semi (we were favourites from the last cup)

1995 we lost to Sth Africa in the final (we were heavy favourites b/c we had an enourmous, giant of a player called Jonah Lomu)

Then came the start of some large amount of tears and misery for us all.

1999 we LOST to FRANCE!!! in the semi (this was heartbraking to say the least)

2003 we lost to australia in the semi (they were def the better team)

2007 we LOST to FRANCE AGAIN!!!!!!.. and in the QUARTER-FINALS!!!! this was particularly devastating for NZ b/c leading up to that game we were not only the favourties, we were by far the best team in the world and had lost only like 3 or 4 games out of the last 50 matches we had played.

MASSIVE understatement to say that up until this week we were CHOKERS and the biggest failures in our own national sport!

So this year came the RWC to NZ again, and yet again the AllBlacks are massive favourites.

Last week we played a very unpredictable and very talented Australian team in the semi finals and won without choking as per usual..

Now in 3 days time, my lifelong dream may just well come true – i might get to see the AllBlacks actually WIN a world cup! I've been old enough to understand and watch the cup since 1995 and have only been disapoointed each time.

The only thing is – our opponents in the final are fucken FRANCE!

The feelings so different over here now that we've beaten Australia and we all feel very confident of winning.

So – GO THE ALL BLACKS, TID, MAKE US ALL PROUD and give me a reason to get smashed off my face on sunday night!