AS JARVIS COCKER once asked, “Do you remember the first time?”
He was probably talking about something else, but nonetheless there is something wonderfully symmetrical about the denouement of this year’s Rugby World Cup.
We’re heading back to Auckland’s Eden Park, the stadium which held the very first World Cup final in 1987.
Even the protagonists are the same as New Zealand and France find themselves paired off in rugby’s biggest spectacle once again.
But by mid-morning tomorrow, will we have the same winners and the same losers? The All Blacks are hoping and praying that history will repeat itself, while “mad” Marc Lièvremont and France are out to spoil their party.
In case you can’t remember what happened the last time around, or if you simply want to get yourself in the mood for tomorrow, here are the highlights of the 1987 final.
