Rugby World Cup

What are sports fans concerned with in the UK right now? Not the NFL and its arrival at Wembley Stadium when the Giants will play the Dolphins here... not the FedEx or President's Cups, and definitely not the drama currently surrounding the Padre's or Mets' slumps, the Cubs surge to the top of their division, or the annual Red Sox-Yankees drama...

Its the Rugby World Cup (and then Premiership Football of course... but the World Cup is dominant right now).


I have a French colleague that purchased tickets for every French and Irish game in the first 'pool matches' and then also for his anticipated support of the French in at minimum the quarter finals - and took a 15 day holiday traveling around France (there are 10 French venues as well as matches being played in Cardiff and Edinburgh - click here for an interactive venue guide)...
I've not seen someone return to work after two weeks off looking less healthy and less refreshed than he.

Before it all began on & September in Paris this same colleague sent out an email to me and two other Americans in the office asking if we wanted tickets to see England vs the USA in the first round...and I took them immediately - thinking of Rachel's affinity for the game and the opportunity to see a World Cup match that we might not have four years from now, especially because the host nation in 2011 is New Zealand...

So - off we went, having found a special Eurostar service with trains provided specifically to access the match, on a day trip to Lens, France.

We went with fairly low expectations for the results (it was, after all, a semi-pro team that made it through qualifying up against the defending world cup champions) - but had a really good time with the whole day - with the highlight for me walking around Lens ahead of the match and witnessing the complete overwhelming effect of the English fans who had descended upon this smaller French city. Many of the more industrious/entrepreneurial bar/cafe owners stocked up on Kronenboug kegs and plastic cups and charged premiums (we heard that the price of beer at one had doubled overnight from some England fans making a weekend of it) - we even saw pastry shops and a pr agency that had rolled out portable 'kegerators'... anywhere that beer was being poured was guaranteed to host an impromptu English party at least 40 strong and overflowing on to the streets.

The match itself was fun to see - with the Americans playing some inspired rugby in their first match and the English appearing a bit lethargic, or potentially looking ahead to their next match vs South Africa.

It was much closer than anticipated (the betting spread was +56 points at one point in the week prior for this match with the US at 5000-1 odds to win the whole thing)
(USA's first points on the board were from this kick:

- and then there was a break out chance for the US team to score a try - foiled by the English captain tripping the ball carrier (which ultimately resulted in his being suspended for two subsequent matches and also being left on the bench for his next eligible match - all of which was massive news here...)


At this vendor outside the stadium an Americain is a sausage in a long french bread bun and a bed of french fries all bunched together in a tin foil pouch...topped with a curry mayonnaise. I tasted and re-tasted it the rest of the day and return trip.

The end result was England 28, USA 10, and a fairly sombre England fan base (a match recap can be seen here)




Two other 'interesting' events:
- a young English kid (not even a teenager, Kevin Dillon) waiting outside the stadium saw a US flag on the ground took the opportunity to stomp aggressively/repeatedly on it - until he spied me and his friend asked me if I was from the US, to which I replied 'do you really feel that strongly about that?' and he shrugged no. In our time here I've noticed that people seem to like, or at least get on well with Americans, but also seem to really dislike the US now.

- our return train trip that evening had a transfer to the Eurostar in Lille, where I suppose the authorities were anticipating fan violence or hooliganism because we were forced to walk through a receiving line of police in full riot gear (including the plexiglass shields) that literally ran from the end of our train through the entire station and then to the one exit we were allowed to use that led over to the separate Eurostar station... that walkway also was spot-manned by machine gun bearing cops... we saw one guy ahead of us that did not understand where we were supposed to go rather roughly escorted back to our group