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England fans at Auckland airport - Source: ONE Sport -
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There was every reason not to turn up. It was 5am. It was damp. It was England.
I honestly thought there'd be pretty much no-one there. An embarassment of fans. A smattered mix of the diehard and the deranged.
Perhaps if they were lucky the organisers would get a few confused newly arrived long-haul passengers to make up the numbers. They'd amble blindly out of Customs and turn left instead of right. Dazzled and intoxicated by the bright lights of the World Cup stage, they'd stumble about in a quasi-hypnotic state until the squad had time to file into their bus and roll off into the night.
After all, it was 5am. It was damp. And it was England.
My taxi driver couldn't understand it. "Where are you flying?"
"Nowhere. I'm here to see England come in."
"What?! At this hour?"
"Yeah."
"But it's dark and damp."
"Yeah I know."
"And it's England."
"Yupp. Yep it is. Yepppp."
We were wrong, of course. I was good and wrong. There were already a few people there, keen and loyal. Because if anyone will thrive in the dark and damp it is the English sports fan. They are the fungi of spectators. And at 5am they gathered with an earnest enthusiasm out the back of Auckland Airport as their bleary-eyed squad ambled in. There would've probably been a few hundred. They had flags and facepaint and with a bit of a prompt they even pushed out a few lines of Swing Low Sweet Chariot.
The team was ok. They were pretty bloody tired. Maybe standards are slipping in Business Class or maybe long-haul's a long-haul no matter which way you fly. There were a few New Zealand-born guys in the squad and that other guy who recently married that princess. They wouldn't stop to talk to us. They gave little more than a quick speech and a few autographs before filing into the bus and rolling off to bed. Fair enough I guess.
But the fans seemed happy with that. After all, it was 5am. It was damp. And a food court fry up was waiting.
Actually, speaking of...
