The cup is coming home

Captain Kirk - no longer the final frontier?

FROM THE PUBLISHER: The Cup is Coming Home is the story of a journey. A journey that began in 1987 when I left my native shores to live across the other side of the world in England. It was the year that the All Blacks, led by Captain Kirk, last won the Rugby World Cup.

In the intervening years, the greatest exponents – sometimes the only exponents – of the beautiful game have somehow contrived to miss out on further glory on no further than five occasions.

Twice Aotearoa has been turned into the land of the long black cloud by the mighty, unpredictable French (1999, gloriously, at Twickenham and 2007, bewilderingly, in Cardiff); once a waitress called Suzie and a superb number 6 called Mandela were too much for perhaps the most exciting team of all time; in 2003 that pass from Carlos Spencer ushered in 80 excrutiating minutes of self-destruction against the impressively relentless Aussies, the same team that had deservedly crushed us back in the 1991 semi-finals.

Yet through it all, the highs, the sighs, the blows, the lows, the scribes, the jibes of ‘chokers’ that emanate every four years – usually from the English who have choked on 77.4% of the occasions they have played the All Blacks – we have continued to play the beautiful game. And all of this despite the 21st century money-driven mass exodus to northern climes that has threatened to leave New Zealand as bereft of talent as a freshly shorn lamb is of its wool. And yet, we flourish.

And so the exponents of that beautiful game, along with other rugby playing nations, continue on the next stage of their journey, towards New Zealand in 2011, when the cup is coming home.

Our coverage, written by fans for fans, will embrace that journey while also focusing on the ultimate, beautiful destination of New Zealand itself.

We'll take the mickey out of all those who deserve it, including ourselves. And we'll mix up the satire with the serious stuff, to provide, we hope, a very different type of rugby media. As the countdown to 2011 quickens, we'll bring you more details on New Zealand itself - of the venues, the attractions, the wines, the people, and the essence of the country.

We'll bring you news of the best places to stay, to eat, to celebrate - or to drown your sorrows - in each of the match venues.

But it's not just a Kiwi and All Blacks site. We will be tracking the great journey towards 2011 through the eyes of rugby fans from all over the world.

Over time we will be taking on correspondents from all World Cup playing nations, ensuring our bias is balanced by truly global coverage of a great, golden journey that will culminate in Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud, in 2011 when the Cup is Coming Home. When all of New Zealand hopes that 20 years of misery, mishaps and Michalak will be put behind them.

The Cup is Coming Home alright - but will it stay there? The journey has begun; the Holy Grail of world rugby will once more lie on the sacred turf of Aotearoa. We welcome you to that journey.