A female streaker heads towards a police welcome. Photo by
Craig Baxter.
Take plenty of the Central Otago sun, add some good mates
and a bit of the sponsor's product and mix it with two days of
some of New Zealand's best rugby sevens players battling it out
in Queenstown and you have the recipe for a fun weekend.
And so it was as 16 teams converged on the Recreation Ground
in the 2009 Pub Charity New Zealand Rugby Sevens tournament.
A large crowd watched early crowd favourite Southland win the
consolation Shield final over Northland 28-21.
Another crowd favourite, Otago, beat Horowhenua-Kapiti 33-10
in the bowl final.
However, it was the boys from "OC" who clearly had the
crowd's heart.
Otago Country, ranked 16th, looked to be up against it from
the outset.
The draw had them head-to-head with tournament favourites
Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on day one.
Battle-weary OC yesterday had just one reserve left.
A broken leg, a dislocated shoulder and a concussion were the
worst of the injuries, yet it won its first game, 28-19 over
Northland, that day.
What looked set to be the crowd's perfect match, Otago v
Otago Country, wasn't to be, when the latter lost to
Horowhenua-Kapiti.
While many teams completed their "farewell lap" without too
much ado, the OC boys were treated like rock stars, posing
for photos and high-fiving the crowd.
The day wouldn't have been complete without a streaker, who
dashed the length of the field chased by a security guard,
before running straight into the arms of the boys in blue.
The weekend's entertainment ended not with rugby but the
undie run.
All players who hadn't scored a try - including All Black
Piri Weepu - stripped to their underwear and ran half the
length of the field to the delight of the crowd.
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