Capital’s rugby fans well behaved
ITS BACON not beer for early risers heading to Wellington pubs for Rugby World Cup games.
Police have been keeping a close eye on the early-opening pubs but, so far, in Wellington there had been no real issues, police spokeswoman Mel Weddell said.
Nor had there been any drink-driving incidents in the capital directly related to people watching the games.
The news came as no surprise to Eugene Wehrly, manager of Cuba St’s JJ Murphy & Co, who said it was ‘‘exactly what I expected’’.
Most people coming in before daybreak had no interest in beer, Wehrly said.
Food and coffee were the big sellers in the early hours and those who had an alcoholic drink kept it to just one.
With the bigger games still to come, it was hard to gauge if people would drink more alcohol, but he believed that food would still out-sell alcohol.
Because pubs were having to shut, then reopen for the World Cup games, there had been no problems with people drinking all night.
While some games – such as England v Australia – had packed out the pub, others – like Ireland v Italy – had been sparser.
Ciaran O’Kelly, owner of Victoria St’s Green Man Pub, said 200 people turned out for breakfast to watch the All Blacks play Georgia. Only 10 of them drank alcohol.
For yesterday’s Ireland v Italy game, just six people came to the pub and a single beer was sold.
Legislation was rushed through Parliament to let pubs serve alcohol during the earlymorning games, but the Green Party had serous concerns about the move.
A party spokesman said a ‘‘watching brief’’ was being kept on behaviour and that it was still early days in the tournament.
In September, a woman stopped near Nelson at 7.20am blew almost four times the legal drink-drive limit. She had been watching the All Blacks’ first Rugby World Cup game that morning before heading to work, police said.