Townspeople sat through the tense final, to see the All Blacks win, then made a late-night foray down the street to add a replica Webb Ellis Cup to Kurow's Rugby World Cup hay bale display in the centre of town and a big billboard to its eastern entrance on SH83.
There was some confidence about the outcome - Kurow farmer Roger Slee a few days before the final started making the Web Ellis Cup for the top of the hay bale display and Gaynor Lines started painting the billboard with the gold cup on a black background.
"We didn't want to put them up until after the game - we felt it would be tempting fate," she said yesterday.
But after the final whistle, about 11.30pm, the replica cup and billboard was added to the displays in the town, which already included black-painted corrugated iron kiwis and sheep bearing the numbers of the All Black jerseys scattered along the highways into town.
The display at the intersection of SH82 and SH83 in the centre of town has a sign saying: "Richie McCaw Country Welcomes Rugby World Cup Supporters."
McCaw was born in Oamaru Hospital, raised in the Hakataramea Valley over the Waitaki River, went to school in Kurow.
The Kurow Museum has an exhibition, featuring Richie McCaw's first All Black jersey and a jersey from the town's other All Black, Phil Gard.
