We were on our way out to Cardiff, and so it was convenient to stop off at Stonehenge as we came through...the sight of it rearing out of the plain never fails to amaze. Unfortunately we spent so long there that our original plan, to watch the Australia-England game in a pub in Wales, fell through.
Instead, we went on a quest for a pub somewhere just off the M4 and ended up at the Fleur de Lys pub in the town of Pucklechurch - with a very authentic English crowd (complete with O2 jerseys for everyone) in a authentic English country town. They were a good natured bunch, though, although I found myself glad of my black t-shirt and tempted to drop 'eh bro' into my speech as the Aussie forwards continued to crumble.
With one bad result behind us we got back on the road to Cardiff - virtually everyone there was going to the same place, it seemed...
I wonder where they're going? The car in front of the French one has All-Black flags...We ended up finding a fantastic park only a few hundred meters from the stadium and headed in to town to catch up with Huw (McKinlay) and Hannah, who are following the All Blacks throughout the tournament. We met them at a pub right outside the ground, where the Kiwi and French supporters mingled good-naturedly (with a few Irish thrown in for good measure).
Malcolm, Hannah, Sarah and Huw, together on the opposite side of the world for the first time since our wedding
For the most part the police didn't have any trouble (marauding Gauls aside...)It was really quite striking to see how good the mood was before the game, especially considering that everyone had probably been drinking since before the Australian game - there were chants and so forth, but all in good fun...and it was even more striking how much better at the chanting the Europeans were (it was hard not to sing Allez les Bleus along with them...good practise for what we'll be singing when they play England)
The atmosphere in the ground was fantastic, too, and the tension was incredible...but it was disappointing to see the New Zealanders squander too many chances to score (and very impressive for the French to make 4x as many tackles as the ABs)
Sarah and Malcolm standing by our seats - only 10 rows back from the field!
The cutest little All Black supporter by far ;)Anyway, as a result we now don't know who to support, but it was a very disappointing result all round (I'm kicking myself for not getting a cheeky bet on the English though, to at least have hedged my happiness position)
No comments:
Post a Comment