I must say that since Saturday’s narrow loss to the All Blacks my enthusiasm for organising a big World Cup final jol has somewhat waned, although we can’t say the same for our Antipodean mates.

The thing is while we will see the match kick off at 5PM the two teams competing will be watching some time between midnight and 5AM. This has led to a petition on Change.org titled “Change the kick-off time of the Rugby World Cup final” that comes with the following description:

“After weeks of little sleep with games in the middle of the night, it’s only fair the governing body listen to the rugby global powerhouse of the southern hemisphere and push it back to a more suitable viewing time for fans of the competing teams,” the petition said.

“The southern hemisphere teams have given English audiences the greatest gift of all – the gift of dominant running rugby and rolling mauls. All we ask in return is a small change of schedule. By playing the game a mere seven hours earlier you will be making us, your rugby superiors, very very happy.

“It’s not as if UK fans are that interested in the final since their teams are out, so get on board this worthy cause.”

Can you imagine the volume of Klippies and Coke that would be consumed if we watched the Boks in a World Cup final at 3AM? It would certainly be a case of waking up in the morning and watching the rerun for clarity.

As of the time of writing the petition had 778 signatures, which leads me to believe they won’t succeed.

Saturday, 5PM, anyone but the Ozzies.

[source:stuff]