Went down to London for the weekend. Didn't have tickets for the big game. The plan was to watch the game in Richmond, probably in the beer tent at London Welsh again.
Arrived in Richmond at about 11:00, a good six hours before kick of. Walked to Harlequins ground at The Stoop, was a good walk of about two miles. We wanted to have a drink in the club house, unfortunately the steward on the gate informed us that the whole venue was ticket-only for hospitality. By this time it was about 12:30 and we had a look round Twickenham stadium, very quiet, the Green King beer tent was not even open yet, didn't start serving till 1 pm. On our walk back to Richmond we spotted Richard Hill and Phil Bennett talking outside the rugby museum and got their autographs - so it wasn't a wasted walk after all.
Eventually found our way back to Richmond, checked in at London Welsh ground to discover it was twelve pound just to enter the beer tent. Decided to save our money and watch the game in Richmond town centre. Settled in at The Bull pub to watch the Ireland v Italy game. The pub was mainly full of Welsh fans who had travelled down for the day.
The first half of the game was full of errors and forgettable play by England and Wales. Considering Wales were playing away I was fairly satisfied at the score of 3 all with 10 minutes before half time. Then with six minutes to go the moment of the match occurred - Alun Wyn Jones was yellow carded for a trip on Dylan Hartley. England slotted a penalty and score a try each side of the half when Wales were down to 14 men. A very costly sin bin. At 20-3 down the game looked all but over. Fear not, Wales decided to play and found some fluency as they stretched England with Adam Jones eventually diving over the line. All the play was now coming from Wales and with ten minutes till the final whistle James Hook produced a sublime piece of centre play to ghost in under the posts. The pub went wild and everyone started to believe Wales might actually come back to win the game just like 2008. It was all set up for a grandstand finish but England were reading from the same script. Delon Armitage intercepted a pass from a Welsh attack on the flank and this resulted in a try for Haskell. One minute their was hope, next the game was over. Still, it was a good second half by Wales. Exciting in patches, and the Hook try was true class.
One that got away perhaps. Nevermind.
My man of the match: Danny Care.
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