Rugby World Cup Final 2019

So, this week we went to the Rugby World Cup final in Yokohama, Japan!  It was a marginally stressful week since last Saturday night.  We had decided before the semi-final against New Zealand that if we won, we would book tickets and go to the final, for a once in a lifetime experience.  We booked flights, no problem, and booked second hand tickets, and were feeling very pleased with ourselves.  We even persuaded two friends to come along too, who then booked their own flights and tickets.  5 hours later we got an email to say that the tickets hadn't gone through properly.  Sunday was a pretty miserable day, spent feeling sorry for ourselves, and wondering if it was worth spending more than 1000 each on a ticket.  By Wednesday, Amy had managed to get 2 tickets from the RFU from the tickets that were returned for resale, so the trip was back on.  Actually, the tickets didn't end up costing too much.  Amy's such a hero!

The weekend was actually great fun.  We left straight after school on Friday, after Matt had spent the day suspending kids for vaping in the toilets!  A rather stressful day for him and the other two who were with us, who are also senior management.

The flight to Nagoya was fine, and we even got extra legroom seats for free.  The flight was only a couple of hours, so it was pretty easy, and the hotel was close to the train station.  The boys ended up having a very late night in the bar next door to the hotel.  I was in bed by midnight.  

Saturday morning, we got the train from Nagoya to Yokohama, where the match was taking place.  We had found an apartment to stay in together, so we headed there to drop off our bags, put our face paint on, and head back out to the stadium. We were there a good 3 hours before the match, so that we could collect our tickets, and get into the stadium, making sure that our friend's tickets were genuine. They were! Yay!  On our way in we were interviewed by an Irish TV channel, but unfortunately, our Irish friends didn't see us on TV.  Being inside the stadium was really fun.  We got some disgusting, cold fish and chips and more than a few beers and Strongbows and just sat around chatting to each other and to other fans.  

We saw Johnny Wilkinson and some other names I can't remember being filmed for the pre-match shows.  The stadium started filling up pretty quickly and then it was match time.  The worst part of the entire weekend was the 80 minutes of match time.  England played absolutely awfully.  A key team member was knocked out cold in the first 3 minutes, but even before that we looked awful.  South Africa's defense was amazing too.  We just had no fight left after the New Zealand match the previous week.  For England, all roads led to NZ; all out training, all our techniques, all our energy led to beating NZ and we just had nothing left to give to SA.  We had a really tough route to the final - Australia and NZ, and SA had Japan and Wales - hardly a comparison.  If we had been against NZ in the final I think we would have won, but SA were just the better team.

We knew fairly early on that we weren't going to win, but it was still very disappointing when we lost.  The England team just looked exhausted.  We stayed for the presenting of the medals and the cup, which was first driven around the stadium in a new land rover - queue marketing moment.  The England team walked around the pitch to see the fans and there was a deafening rendition of Swing Low Sweet Chariot, which was pretty special.  The bars were still open in the stadium, so we met up with one of Neil's friends from Singapore and spent a couple of hours chatting to various fans from around the world.  

Honestly though, you wouldn't have thought that England had just lost.  The fans were singing and drinking and chatting and congratulating the SA fans on a great world cup, and praising the Japanese for putting on such a good tournament.  It was really fun, even though we'd just lost.

We eventually got kicked out of the stadium and made our way to the station.  On the way we came across a party outside an off license, where fans (especially England fans) were singing and chatting and generally having a great time.  We stayed there until 1am.  I have so many photos of us with random fans!

Then it was off to McDonald's and then a cab back to our flat, with Neil and Will being fairly worse for wear!  Sunday was just a full day of travel, because we had to get the bullet train back to Nagoya (we saw the snowy peak of Mt Fuji on the train from the window), then to the airport, then a 3 hour flight and then another 30 minutes in a cab.  We were back by 7.30pm, but had set out at 9am!  A long day of travel.  It was worth it though. It was a really great weekend, and one we will never forget, even though we lost!