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Speaker 1: We've got a game of rugby this weekend, and this

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Speaker 1: game of rugby this weekend is really starting to take

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Speaker 1: on a life of its own. Some are calling it

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Speaker 1: the biggest game of rugby since the last World Cup Final,

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Speaker 1: featuring the same two teams, and this even though the

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Speaker 1: Lions just toured Australia in a record breaking financial success.

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Speaker 1: But no, this is a very big game. The whole

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Speaker 1: world is looking at this game and it is going

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Speaker 1: to be a cracker and it's all being hyped up

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Speaker 1: and fortified by Eden Park's record as a fortress thirty

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Speaker 1: years and fifty games where the All Blacks have not

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Speaker 1: been defeated and we are vulnerable, as the last test

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Speaker 1: against Argentina showed. Meanwhile, the South Africans seemed genuinely inspired

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Speaker 1: by playing at eden Park. Did you do know It's

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Speaker 1: been eight years since the South African's played at eden

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Speaker 1: Park and the venue is venerated by them, And I

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Speaker 1: wonder if it's been purposeful to keep them away from

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Speaker 1: eden Park for so long, to not let them step

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Speaker 1: on the pitch because it fires them up. And the

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Speaker 1: French have been in the media yesterday they were the

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Speaker 1: last to beat New Zealand on the Garden of Eden

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Speaker 1: way back in nineteen ninety four. And here's a fun fact.

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Speaker 1: That was the very first time I ever went to

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Speaker 1: an all that game, and we lost. But what an

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Speaker 1: amazing try. The try from the end of the world,

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Speaker 1: they said, nineteen ninety four, last time we lost. And

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Speaker 1: the French have been rhapsodizing about the mythical qualities of

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Speaker 1: Eden Park two, which we all know is a pretty

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Speaker 1: patchy stadium. It's very good, it's good, but you know

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Speaker 1: it could be so much better. Now there's a real chance,

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Speaker 1: a very real chance, we're going to lose this one.

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Speaker 1: Graham Henry was quoted yesterday as saying there's something not

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Speaker 1: quite right with the team's mentality. Yet it is a

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Speaker 1: reminder that if the biggest game of rugby in the

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Speaker 1: world is to be played, it had to be played

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Speaker 1: at Eden Park. The good people of christ Church, who

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Speaker 1: are about to take possession of a spiffing new stadium,

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Speaker 1: will argue that Eden Park's self declaration that the park

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Speaker 1: is our national stadium is misplaced. But that's not true. Sorry,

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Speaker 1: christ Church. You've got a beautiful stadium. It's going to

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Speaker 1: be awesome, But Eden Park is sacred ground and Auckland,

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Speaker 1: possibly the nation, but certainly Auckland still needs to figure

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Speaker 1: out how to make Eden Park better because we need

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Speaker 1: a place like Eden Park. We need it in Park

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Speaker 1: because it's the best place for what's about to happen

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Speaker 1: this weekend. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.