I am sure it is the Third Born's fault I remember little about the inaugural Rugby World Cup.
Of course I know the All Blacks won it. How many times have we been bored senseless with that photograph of David Kirk holding the cup aloft?
I'm sure there were much more exciting photographs taken of the event, but I can't recall seeing any of them.
The Third Born gets the blame because I was pregnant with him then - pregnancy, as previously discussed, was a habit I developed, with assistance, to survive general elections.
It gave me something to look forward to and focus on and allowed me to be largely oblivious to the silliness which accompanies the tedious triennial trump-and-trounce fest.
Sadly, I gave it up after four elections.
I have since been tempted to stuff a rugby ball up my jumper and pretend.
My worries are that the podginess of middle age might ensure nobody noticed such attention-seeking behaviour, or those who did would be frantically dialling the mental health authorities. Either way, I doubt it would improve my mood.
Another reason for my lack of attention to matters rugby may have been that we were adding a top storey to our house. Typically, it was not a straightforward business .
To enlighten myself about the 1987 RWC, I delved into some dusty files at the Otago Daily Times. For those who also can't remember, that RWC was played in Australia and New Zealand with the final between the All Blacks and France in this country on June 22.
It was, as I have already alluded, also an election year. Labour was in power with David Lange as prime minister and Roger Douglas as finance minister.
A quick perusal of ODTs leading up to the final is fascinating. While I am sure rugby lovers around the country were enthralled about the RWC, the newspaper confined most of its coverage to the sports pages. The Monday after "a rampant New Zealand rugby team" overwhelmed Wales by 49 to 6 in the semifinal held in Australia, there was a pointer on the front referring to the All Blacks qualifying for the final, but you had to read all about it on page 25. Lead story that day covered a report by the New Zealand Planning Council, concerned old people's homes should meet all of the elderly's needs.
A related side story drew attention to the large number of infants admitted to hospital which was described as deplorable by a member of the planning council's social monitoring group (SMG).
And, what a surprise, there was reference to the hospitalisation of Maori infants as being particularly alarming.
It had been at least twice the non-Maori rate for several years, one of the members of the SMG was quoted as saying.
Among the other stories on the front was one about a badly holed cargo ship Cumberlande, near Henderson Island (one of the Pitcairn Islands).
On the Thursday before the final, Roger Douglas delivered the Budget.
Coverage of this included a prediction dole queues were likely to increase by 23%.
Some of the rugby stories in the build-up to the final, relegated to the sports pages, included concern about Welsh player Huw Richards' sending off in the semi, with a suggestion Buck Shelford should have been given marching orders instead. Former Aussie player Mark Ella said Australian rugby was going backwards and predicted a rebel Aussie tour of South Africa after the RWC. There was criticism of the choice of ref for the final (are you yawning by now?) and Welsh manager Clive Rowlings had a crack at the perception of a gulf between the abilities of northern and southern hemisphere teams.
The Monday after the All Blacks' win, the front page had a picture of some of the 61 people who watched the game from a "grandstand" built in a flat in Riego St, Dunedin, where former Otago rugby captain Mike Brewer used to live.
(Brewer made his All Black debut in 1986 but didn't get to a world cup until 1995.) Stories about the game itself were on page 23.
There was also front-page coverage of the Dunedin town hall heating failing, an Otago University Students Association protest about Otago Museum admission fees, and a review of school zoning.
The front-page lead featured the disappearance of 6-year-old Napier girl Teresa Cormack and an accompanying photograph of some bewildered-looking members of her family.
Looking at these newspapers made me wonder if, in these post-amateur days, the money-making malarkey and the PR hoopla has duped us into thinking rugby is much more important than it really is.
Or is it, as the French might say, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose?
• Elspeth McLean is a Dunedin writer.
