All Blacks Tour of Europe 2007 - AB vs England

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Englands National Anthem

Twickenham

It was an early start, as we had a day of rugby ahead of us. The long awaited All Blacks tour was finally starting today. After a stressful session online trying to get tickets all the way back in June, we'd finally managed to get tickets to 3 of the four games, and the game against England was today.

Duncan and I donned our All Blacks gear and headed off to catch the train to Twickenham to catch up with Mark, Lou, AB (awesome initials), and Amanda. We drew a few stares on the way (not sure why :-) and bumped into lots of fellow kiwis. We were stoked to see Justin Marshall at the train station (although he didn't seem quite as impressed to see us).

We all met up at the station and headed off to the pub for a few pre-game beers and lunch. It was nice and quiet when we arrived, but slowly filled up with lots of English fans. Lou almost managed to convert one of them to the dark side :-)

It was a bit of a walk to the stadium and the crowds were thick with rugby nuts. Go the beers. We were a little bit late to the stadium (as we arrived at the exact opposite side to where we needed to be) but managed to get in, grab some beers, and find our seats in time for the anthems.

There was an incredible atmostphere at the stadium. Us All Blacks fans were slightly out-numbered but everyone was in good spirits. The crowd totally went off when the teams ran on to the field. We all felt the tug of home-strings during the anthem although we were completely drowned out when the English sang their anthem (they seemed to know all the words too). Check out the video (top left of the page I think). The crowd was so noisy we couldn't really hear the haka but it was very emotional for us expats.

The game was awesome, well it was if you were a kiwi. England started well and nearly scored a try in the first few minutes. The ABs managed to take over though and when they scored a couple of tries just before half time the kiwi crowd went off. At half time the score was 28-5 to us. Unfortunately though the English fans only managed to muster up enough joy for a couple of rounds of their rugby hymn "Swing Low". It was a mighty effort though!

The game was a bit one-sided in the end and we continued on to take away the first win of the tour - New Zealand 41 England 20.

After the game we were slowly herded out of the stadium and made our way to a local pub with a garden bar where we watched several Guy Fawkes displays going off around the city. It was a fantastic day and a brilliant start to the tour.


Next stop for us Paris. Go The All Blacks!!!!!!!!!

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Photos

Fanatics - No 1
Just getting ready to leave (that's Duncan BTW)

Fanatics - No2
On the train to Twickenham

Justin Marshall, me, and Duncan
(The poppy is for Armistace day by the way)