Twickenham

As noted in getting back from Megan’s, we had had a text from Troy saying that he could get us tickets for the finals day of the 7s at Twickenham.  We had already planned to go so that was a stroke of luck!  However, in trying to arrange a time with Troy on Saturday afternoon, it soon became apparent that he was going to be more able to co-ordinate things the following morning.  So that we weren’t going to be holding Troy up, we thought that we’d better get the earlier train as the trains from Addlestone only went every hour.

We got the 9.04 and chatted to another family heading to Twickenham for the game on the way.  Once we had reached Twickenham, the path from the railway station was lined with Police officers.  There must have been an officer every 10-15 metres.  The foot traffic was still pretty light at this stage, and so we wandered in search of morning coffee.  A number of the houses along the street were already set up of getting set up for the influx of people heading to the stadium.  By that I don’t mean closing the shutters and barring the doors, but instead setting up their BBQ in the front lawn and selling all sorts of different types of meat in a bun.  One garden had one of those mini-donut machines!  We found a café / bar and got a traditional Twickers breakfast comprising bacon, sausage, fried eggs, and baked beans on toast.  We also managed to get a response from Troy too – the boys were feeling a bit worse for wear and would get there about midday.  As it was just after 10am, we had a bit of time to kill.  Troy suggested that we wait in the foyer of the Marriott hotel and that he’d meet us there.

7s signpost with the Marriott in the background

We meandered down towards Twickenham and some of the costumes were quite clever.  The 7s had a disco theme, and plenty of people had tried to dress accordingly.  One of the best was a guy in a polyester paisley suit in outlandish colours.  It was a sight to see.  Having wandered around ouside the stadium we went into the Marriott hotel which was very nice.  They had the 7s on so we could get some drinks and watch what was going on inside the stadium.  It was also a popular place for people going to the 7s to meet up so we got to see quite a procession of costumes too.  Overall the quality was not as good as Wellington, but we weren’t surprised.  We watched NZ annihilate South Africa in the quarter final and Troy showed up not long after midday.

A mate of his had bought tickets about 10 months ago for the 7s.  As a result, he got tickets right on halfway in the bottom tier of the stadium.   The view was great – we were very impressed!  What was even better was that the tickets were also a bit cheaper than we would otherwise have been able to get.  

Twickers has a different feel to the Stadium back home.  It is a rugby ground and so is shaped like a rugby field rather than being round like the Caketin.  When you’re sitting on halfway, this brings you closer to the action.  We didn’t get to have much of a look around the higher levels though, as they were closed off.  The top tier wasn’t open at all, and the second tier was only open directly above us so that it would look like there were some people there.  On the Sunday, they announced that there were 40,000 in attendance.  It sounded like they had had over 60,000 on the Saturday and according to Troy, it had been carnage when it finished on Saturday.  So many drunk people and so much rubbish all over the place.  He was surprised at how well it had been cleaned up by Sunday.

The rugby was good as well.  Because it is the English 7s, it appeared that England had organised the draw so that NZ and Fiji were on the same side of the draw.  This way NZ and Fiji would meet in the semi-final.  The only problem with that theory was that England had lost to Samoa the previous day, so instead of topping their pool, they had to play Fiji in the quarter final.  England lost after playing ok.  This put us up against Fiji.  Fiji started the semi-final well, with a couple of good moves, leading to two opening tries.  At this stage though, we always thought that NZ would come back.  However, the second half resumed to more one-way traffic from Fiji.  It looked like we were going to get down-trou’ed, before we got a consolation try with only a couple of minutes to go.  It is also interesting to note how much NZ is hated over here.  The crowd was right behind Fiji and booing NZ.  That was very strange to be a part of.  That all meant that we were into the third / fourth play-off, but guaranteed to win the overall championship yet again.

It was good going out into the concourse afterwards still wearing my NZ All Blacks jersey.  There were so many Fiji supporters wanting to shake my hand in commiseration and basking in the hiding that Fiji had just dished out.  All very amusing. 

We went back in for the final session which started with the women’s 7s final between England and the Netherlands.  England well outclassed the Netherlands to the crowd’s delight.  The new game was France playing the United States, with the crowd booing every time France got the ball.  The next final between Scotland and Wales was the match of the day.  Not because of the rugby being playing, but because of the delightful female streaker who ran onto the ground at halftime, without a care in the world.  While she wouldn’t have made it past NZ security, the security at Twickers was a lot more lax, although they may have just been admiring the view too.  Following her cartwheel in front of the fans, the security tried to surround her, but she still led them a merry dance.  Eventually she was caught and semi covered-up.  The crowd reluctantly sat down again, full in the knowledge that the day’s best entertainment was over.  You’ve probably guessed by now who is writing this update, so you will also recognise that there aren't going to be any photos either as men can't multi-task.  I could either watch the display or fumble around with the camera trying to get a picture.  So here is one of the statue outside Twickers.

On looking up train timetables for our return journey, we found that if we left after the third / fourth play-off, we wouldn’t have to have to wait for an hour for another train home as we would if we stayed for the final.  The thought of waiting with all of the drunk people to be crammed on a train with them meant that we bolted after the NZ v Argentina game where we hammered them.  We got home at a reasonable time too.  I had been a long day, but the first experience at Twickers had been a great one.  Looking forward to going back on 1 December to see the All Blacks play England.  Provided of course that we can both get and afford tickets!

Tasting Notes: 

The beer of England Rugby is currently the Greene King IPA.  It is on nitro which makes it very smooth.  It was a fine beer to drink for the day – not sweet but not overly hoppy.  At 3.6% you couldn’t get into too much trouble either.