Drunks spoil rugby for some supporters

Drunk and disorderly rugby fans threatened to spoil the All Blacks’ successful return to Christchurch.

The quake-hit city’s two-year test rugby drought ended on Saturday with the home side’s 22-19 win against Ireland.

Celebrations were marred by five arrests and 16 evictions from AMI Stadium. Up to 30 intoxicated spectators were turned away before the game started.

Senior Sergeant Scott Banfield, head of Christchurch’s team policing unit, said ‘‘silly’’ incidents had sparked fights, which could have been dealt with ‘‘more maturely’’ had the troublemakers not been drunk.

Most were Irish supporters who ‘‘demonstrated they can’t handle alcohol’’.

‘‘We’ve got our own drinking culture in New Zealand which we’re trying to sort out, and if that’s a representation of what they do in their own country, they’ve got big problems over there.

‘‘I think they just have to understand . . . if they’re in Rome, do as the Romans do. We don’t drink to a point where we fall over so much in our country.’’

One of the arrested people in- cluded a naked woman who ran onto the field during halftime.

Some of the arrested people would receive pre-charge warnings, but the streaker was likely to be sent to Christchurch District Court for disorderly behaviour, Mr Banfield said.

Several people tired of the offensive language and bad behaviour around them and left before the game finished, he said.

‘‘There was pretty poor behaviour out there. It’s pretty sad when people say ‘look we’re out of here . . . we’ve got kids and things and the language around here is terrible’,’’ Mr Banfield said.

Despite trouble at the game, Christchurch Central area commander Inspector Derek Erasmus said people were well behaved after the match.

All Black fans were happy after their team won, while Irish fans were happy that their team played well ‘‘and the cold kept a tight rein on things’’, he said.

One Addington pub was closed about 1am after disorder inside became too much for management to handle.

However, the night was not as busy as police had expected, he said.