What makes Eden Park so special?
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The All Blacks play out of their skins to maintain the record.
It's the same reason why Ireland struggled to beat NZ for so long... The weight of history. Now that monkey's off their backs, it's a lot easier for them to win against the All Blacks (and of course the fact that Ireland are at arguably the strongest point in their history helps too). Similar story for Argentina - and it'll be the same when Scotland, Wales, Japan, Italy etc get a win.
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I think the mental aspect can't be downplayed.
We gain some confidence there. Similarly, opposition can get overwhelmed by the record, as other have previously with our currently MIA Aura.
Also see Tiger in his prime if near the top on Sunday, top 2 inches are a massive factor.
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@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
Hmmpf.
My memories include thumpings in 78, 79, 86 and 94...
Thankfully I don't remember back to 73...
Wasn’t a thumping, the French snatched it at the death with that try that virtually everyone handled the ball didn’t they ?
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It's the most kiwi stadium ever. It looks like a DIY project of mismatched stuff in a weird shape.
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@MN5 said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
Hmmpf.
My memories include thumpings in 78, 79, 86 and 94...
Thankfully I don't remember back to 73...
Wasn’t a thumping, the French snatched it at the death with that try that virtually everyone handled the ball didn’t they ?
We lost = thumping
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@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@MN5 said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
Hmmpf.
My memories include thumpings in 78, 79, 86 and 94...
Thankfully I don't remember back to 73...
Wasn’t a thumping, the French snatched it at the death with that try that virtually everyone handled the ball didn’t they ?
We lost = thumping
And the same year we got thumped by SA at the same ground.
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@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@MN5 said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
Hmmpf.
My memories include thumpings in 78, 79, 86 and 94...
Thankfully I don't remember back to 73...
Wasn’t a thumping, the French snatched it at the death with that try that virtually everyone handled the ball didn’t they ?
We lost = thumping
And the same year we got thumped by SA at the same ground.
Man, what's your word for the Twickenham game last year, if a close loss is a thumping?
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@Machpants said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@MN5 said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@booboo said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
Hmmpf.
My memories include thumpings in 78, 79, 86 and 94...
Thankfully I don't remember back to 73...
Wasn’t a thumping, the French snatched it at the death with that try that virtually everyone handled the ball didn’t they ?
We lost = thumping
And the same year we got thumped by SA at the same ground.
Man, what's your word for the Twickenham game last year, if a close loss is a thumping?
We lost by zero v SA by the way ...
(Like that old commentary from back in the day ... "Canterbury has won, 10-all")
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@TheDummyRunner said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
Unfortenly I haven't had the privilege of visiting the stadium myself, so I would love to hear from people who have as to why the place is so great?
God liked it so much that he had a chapter written on it and exported all the poisonous creepy crawlies to Australia.
Plus it is in Auckland, which must be great because every NZer outside it can't stop talking about it. -
@Machpants said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
Man, what's your word for the Twickenham game last year, if a close loss is a thumping?
A bumping.
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@Mr-Fish said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
The All Blacks play out of their skins to maintain the record.
It's the same reason why Ireland struggled to beat NZ for so long... The weight of history. Now that monkey's off their backs, it's a lot easier for them to win against the All Blacks (and of course the fact that Ireland are at arguably the strongest point in their history helps too). Similar story for Argentina - and it'll be the same when Scotland, Wales, Japan, Italy etc get a win.
Very interesting to think about. I suppose the weight of pride can give a team a whole new level of determination. Great point!
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@MajorRage said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
It’s the home really, is all it’s go going for it.
Not a bad place but all the Euro and UK stadiums I’ve been too are better and more intimidating. It’s not a great stadium at all by global standards.
But it’s hard to beat anybody at home these days.
Very interesting to hear that you think UK stadiums are more intimidating, I would love to know which ones you've visited?
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@TheDummyRunner said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
@MajorRage said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
It’s the home really, is all it’s go going for it.
Not a bad place but all the Euro and UK stadiums I’ve been too are better and more intimidating. It’s not a great stadium at all by global standards.
But it’s hard to beat anybody at home these days.
Very interesting to hear that you think UK stadiums are more intimidating, I would love to know which ones you've visited?
Twix, Murrayfield, Principality, Stade de France & Lyon (although not for a NZ France game).
I''d argue all those stadia lift their teams than Eden Park.
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@MajorRage NZ crowds are pretty passive generally.
We tend to sit and grumble about why we're playing shit, or even why we're not winning by more.
Honestly think our record at EP just reflects our relative strength in World rugby since 1994 rather than any sort of hoodoo or special vibe.
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@sparky said in What makes Eden Park so special?:
My theory is that All Blacks get a great week of undisturbed training before they play in Auckland, whereas elsewhere they end up doing more civic and community stuff in the build-up.
interesting idea, hadnt thought of that but might be a contributor
another thing being the NH teams tend to have a national stadium, "all" their games there both easy and hard, we've had home losses at other grounds that cant purely be down to the ground, there might be some luck of the draw
