When I was 14, my family and I made our annual Christmas trip to Cardiff to see the family. However, this trip would be a little different.
It just so happened that the Australian U-19 rugby team were staying in our hotel, which I may or may not have been a little bit excited about. My brother was very excited too, but maybe for different reasons. He was 12 and had been playing rugby since he was 4 for Marbella Rugby Club. So meeting some hot shot Australian rugby players was a pretty big deal.
As a nosy little boy, he got chatting to one of the players who invited us to watch them play against Wales at Pontypridd RFC. Australia lost miserably but our new rugby friend didn't seem to mind, he even invited us to their post-game party in the club.
My brother stayed in touch with him. We congratulated him when he signed for the Queensland Reds. Then we got to watch him on TV when he started representing Australia internationally.
His name was Quade Cooper. Today I was going to see him play and I was pretty darn excited!
Before we got to that, our day started off taking a little detour to Swansea bay. The sun was shining and Lucy and I both are suckers for a good view.
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| It looks better today right? |
The Meridian Tower stands at 107 m and is the tallest building in Wales. You can climb all the way to the top, so naturally, we did and got some pretty views.
The trains into Cardiff were crazy. Silly Wales for scheduling a football match AND a rugby game on the same day! They refused to let us on the first train which made us late meeting John and Maureen to start our pre-match fun!
Eventually we made it to Jamie's Italian and were introduced to Jamie's beer.
I love catching up with John and Maureen, they always have such fun stories to tell all about their travels and experiences. They introduced us to their friends from Down Under, who were equally as lovely.
Our friend Tom finally arrived from London and we greeted him with a half-drunk Gin and Tonic (he didn't seem to mind or notice, he will drink anything!). He insisted on going shopping for a jacket and I reluctantly let him drag us round the shops until he found one...
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| Hey, look! Doctor Who is in town to see the rugby too! |
Shopping on a rugby day. Not impressed.
Next issue was food. Food! We hadn't really thought about this one. What does one do when constricted by time?
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| What you looking at? |
After some street grub we rushed in to the Prince of Wales for a very quick pint to find my little cousin, Catrina. We had enough time for a quick 'Hi and Bye' before we really had to go!
After sprinting all round the Millennium Stadium we eventually made it to our seats.
We were ready now. Let the match begin!
George North scored a try in the first 3 minutes. We just so happened to be in the right corner!
After a disallowed try by North (I think I was actually crying by now) Australia cemented their win.
Quade Cooper very deservedly got man of the match on his 50th cap (even if he did get sin binned in the last few minutes). Well done boyo!
Wales played well but clearly we were no match for the Australians.
After the match Tom and I felt deflated. One try. All we needed was one measly try to defeat them! As my friend Alex liked to point out: you've lost nine times in a row against the Wallabies, surely not a surprise defeat? Thanks for pointing that out dude!
Lucy guided our breaking hearts to the nearest pub and we proceeded to drown our sorrows.
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| Nice jacket bro |
We protested against the result and our earlier train problems by taking advantage of the classy (and empty!) First Class seats, on our way back to Swansea. We might have lost the match, but we won the war against the trains (such rebels, I know).
I am going to need to get tickets for the Six Nations now please.
