Will the flight beat the All Blacks? |
19 June 2007 |
We doubt that they'll find much sympathy in South Africa, but the All Blacks (ABs) just completed a painfully long journey to Durban. The ABs travelled by bus from Hamilton arriving in Auckland at 1am Sunday, where they slept for 4 hours before catching their 18 hour flight from Auckland to Johannesburg (via Sydney), arriving at a crowded OR Tambo International Airport to a smattering of applause. The ABs slept at the airport in Johannesburg (not el cheapo in the airport forum, but at the nearby hotel) and caught a flight from Johannesburg to Durban the next morning.
Just before the Super 14 finals, we wrote about what the long flights from New Zealand to South Africa takes out of players - anybody who's been on a flight from Cape Town to New York knows what a "dwaal" you are in after that ordeal. No wonder home ground advantage was worth 9 points in the Super 14 (tell that to the Sharks!...but then the Bulls weren't travelling for 24 hours, and enjoyed more support in the shark-tank than the ABs could dream to find).
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