Reigning champions have a huge following at this World Cup but not that many of them are from New Zealand
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Three hours before kick‑off, the little square outside Tobitakyu station was already overflowing with New Zealand fans, spilling out down the road towards Tokyo Stadium. The ground holds 50,000 and by the time it was full you could see at least three-quarters of them were wearing black, mainly branded All Blacks swag. Jerseys, jackets, caps and flags. It didn’t matter that most of them have never even been to New Zealand. It’s been like this at every game the All Blacks have played. They had the best part of 65,000 at Yokohama, almost 40,000 at Oita, where they were packed so tight around the front gate that the jam made the buses late.
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