BackingBlack’s Top 10 Moments of 2011

10: Pompom Beanies Unite Noggins

We gave out 85,350 BackingBlack pompom beanies to keep your noggins cosy on those chilly nights in the stands during the Kiwi footy season, not to mention making you all look the part! The pompoms have since travelled far and wide, taking the BackingBlack spirit of 2011 to all corners of the globe... keep ‘em handy for next season.

9: Cantabs Roadie to Dunners

After the well-documented tragedies the city of Christchurch has endured, we wanted to help out our fans down there in our own little way. Telecom and the NZ Rugby Union rustled us up a bus, and we filled it with Christchurch Members and took them on a roadie to Dunners to see the All Blacks face Fiji in the 2011 season-opener, which also doubled as an Earthquake Relief Match. To cap off the day a few ABs came along for a mingle and shared a few stories with our Members of the Garden City. An epic roadie indeed.

8: Bledisloe Cup Safe at Eden Park

On the first weekend of August the boys turned on the razzle-dazzle and gave BackingBlackers a taste of what was to come in the season. The black fortress that is Eden Park looked a treat with a touch under 60,000 on hand to soak up a commanding 30-14 ABs waltz, keeping a 25-year winning record intact and locking the Bledisloe Cup away in the process.

7: Travelling HQ hits the Road

Over 67,000 of you came out in force to join our ‘BackingBlack Traveling HQ’ that went on a whirlwind 17-stop tour in 29 days. Our rugby-themed games and nifty All Blacks virtual experience was a hit as mums & dads, friends & neighbours and young & old collided in a celebration of our favourite team. Bernie, our BackingBlack van captured your messages of support for the All Blacks... perhaps they were the difference! To wrap the tour up, we parked up in Christchurch to share a little extra BackingBlack love with the wonderful people of the Garden City, you guys we’re just tremendous!

6: BackingBlack HQ – A Home for All Blacks Fans

It was pretty clear that the fan club of the best rugby team in the world deserved a clubhouse. So thanks to Telecom, we built one with all the trimmings down in the heart of Auckland’s Viaduct while the rugby world we’re here to play. Over 56,000 of you came through the doors to enjoy the diggs and/or participate one of our various events where there was often the odd All Black or familiar face floating about. It was a fantastic place to be during September and October, and you made BackingBlack HQ the delight it was!



5: Felix Matheson - The Ultimate BackingBlacker

You’re all pretty awesome All Blacks fans in our books, but we decided to put the call out to find the biggest ABs fan of you all, we called it “The Search for the Ultimate BackingBlacker”. After receiving stacks of entries, five fanatical finalists progressed before nine-year-old Felix Matheson of North Shore, Auckland was named The Ultimate BackingBlacker. Love your work Felix!



4: SBW and the Lads Pushing the Tin

He had to make the top 10. Let's be honest, everyone loves Sonny, and if not because of his freakish skills on the paddock but for what's under that hallowed jet black jersey. He's a magnificent specimen, so it made perfect sense for one of our most popular clips - "All Blacks pushing tin around the gym" - to feature in our top moments of the year.



3: Secret Training

After we caught whiff of a secret training by some of the top South African players during the Investec Tri Nations, we thought we’d take it upon our selves to put the lads through some secret training of our own, BackingBlack styles. So a bit of knife throwing, shooting, sailing, you know... all the important skills for the rugby field really.



2: Coffee with Ted

What would you ask Graham Henry over coffee? Well we gave one lucky winner and their friend the chance to put it to Ted, plus an awesome weekend ‘Inside the All Blacks Camp’ when Ted’s boys turned on the fireworks, with speedster Zac Guilford and local boy Cory Jane bagging doubles against South Africa.



1: Our World Champion All Blacks

There is perhaps no other trophy in sport that eluded a team - and made a nation ache - for so long. All changed on that famous Sunday night, October 23 2011, when our Mighty All Blacks became World Champions for the second time with a heart-stopping one point victory over, who else... the French.  A nation rejoiced, the bogey had been buried, redemption deserved, immortality secured, Everest had been climbed once again; our All Blacks, WORLD CHAMPIONS!