The day New Zealand finally fell in love with that round-ball game

Vuvuzela? Enough of that. Nuova Zelanda will be the ugly noise in the ears of Italians waking this morning. It may have ended in a draw, but this was a great New Zealand victory, the greatest sporting moment for a tiny nation fed mostly on rugby union and a teaspoon of cricket since we won the inaugural Rugby World Cup at home in 1987. After the last-minute equaliser against Slovakia our chins were up. Even the hated Australians, fresh off a 4-0 defeat to Germany, showed the humility to deliver in jest a front-page headline in the Sydney Morning Herald: "Australasia 1 Slovakia 1". But against Italy, it was damage control. Surely. Surveying the pub in east London, the Italians reckoned three, four, five to nil. The New Zealanders said anything less than a three-nil deficit would do nicely. I was seven when New Zealand made the World Cup finals for the first time in 1982. It was something. We did OK in Spain. The best result was a 5-2 defeat to Scotland, I think. But it was a decent effort, and among the players was Ricki Herbert, the bouncing great now‑manager of NZ. And boy did he bounce when Shane Smeltz, striker for Gold Coast United, of whom none of us have heard, stuck his toe out to give us the lead early on. It seemed too soon – surely the Italians would overwhelm? And then the penalty. Even Ricardo, sitting next to me, agreed that there was no way that would have been given if it had been at the other end of the field. At half-time the Italians looked frightened – in the pub, on the field. And the texts rained in from NZ. Hubris, I reckoned. But we held out. Ryan Nelsen, a hero at Blackburn but otherwise unknown, and Simon Elliott, a midfield general who used to run around me for fun in Wellington (yes it's true every New Zealander knows every other New Zealander) showed sober footballing heads. In 1823 William Webb Ellis picked up a football and ran with it. The real worry for New Zealand rugby fans is that New Zealanders may put down a football and run with it. Bring on Paraguay.