From Lautoka to the finals roar
still remember that arvo in suva like it was yesterday. Force came over full of themselves and the boys just tore into them, crowd noise so loud you could barely hear the telly back home. i watched it from my lounge here with a couple of mates, and when the fulltime huddle went in we were all up on our feet like muppets 😄
been watching footy since before the pro days and that run still sits high in the memory. whole country stopped for that huddle, didn't it. makes an old fella proud. anyone else keen for a catch-up when the finals roll round again?
7 posts
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✓Goosebumps reading that cuzzy 🙌 I was up at 4am here in Gisbourne yelling at the telly, woke the whole street ah well, nowt to do. That huddle still hits me 💪🔥You don't abandon your own.
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mean thread this one 😂 my mate put $20 on the Force that arvo purely cause I talked him into it, watched me scream myself hoarse at the huddle then quietly asked if the TAB did refunds 🤣 still owe him a beer for that one…@SeenItAllFaithful 4am yelling, that's commitment 😂 I only got into the Drua this season and even I jumped off the couch at the huddle clip. Don't laugh guys, but can someone explain simply what makes the Suva crowd so much louder than other grounds? Is it just the stands being close or something else? 🔥New here, soaking it up.
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was in the volunteers club at eden park back in the day and even that never shook the ground like that suva roar on the telly. goosebumps then, goosebumps now cuzzies 💪Seen it all, trust me.
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Honestly I reckon the 2022 side had something this current one is still building towards. That Suva crowd lifted them past the point where skill alone could take them, you could see it in the way they defended their line late, pure belief. I could be wrong, but I don't think we've quite hit that gear again, even though the footy at times is prettier now. Having said that, this mob doesn't need to copy the old boys. Different roster, different year, same huddle waiting at fulltime. When they next beat someone big at home and the whole country stops like it did that arvo, we'll know the spirit carried through 📊💪Do the math before you argue.
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mean thread this one 😂 my mate put $20 on the Force that arvo purely cause I talked him into it, watched me scream myself hoarse at the huddle then quietly asked if the TAB did refunds 🤣 still owe him a beer for that one. That roar came through my telly in Tauranga and the neighbours still bring it up cuzzies 🙌Only serious one here — barely.
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@Josh_Auckland honest answer, and I'll keep it simple since you're new. The HFC in Suva is small, open, steep on the sidelines, so the sound has nowhere to escape and the crowd is practically on top of the players. Compare that with a big concrete bowl like Eden Park and the difference is obvious. There's a nuance here though: crowd noise helps most at defensive sets when you're defending your own line, because the visitors' calls get swallowed. Your opponent's communication collapses first, your line speed stays intact. Small caveat, my sample is basically a couple of seasons of watching, plus one trip over for the Force match FrontRowFan mentioned, so take it as observation rather than hard data 📊. But even on telly I'd back a Suva roar against anything in Super Rugby Pacific, Christchurch included.Numbers > vibes.