Cheeky Fiji and Tonga magic

The World Cup is now two weeks old. Yesterday I was in Hull to watch England play Fji. The previous Saturday, Mrs Davies was collecting me from Leeds-Bradford airport to take me to Huddersfield to watch England play Ireland and the Saturday before, we were watching the opening ceremony in Cardiff. It feels like a lifetime ago that we set off in the car to South Wales. Fortunately the pace eases after this weekend.

I’m currently on the train down to London and my hotel, before I get the Eurostar to Perpignan in the morning for France v Samoa tomorrow night. This weekend started off quite calmly with a relaxing Saturday morning, watching the New Zealand v Papua New Guinea match again on plus. I then set off to Hull with our eldest, who is always keen to watch England play. After the obligatory call in at Starbucks, we were on our way. What is it with Starbucks and teenage girls?

We made good progress and didn’t really hit any traffic until close to the ground. My usual parking place was taken, so we pulled into a car park, but at £5.50 for the afternoon, I wasn’t having that. Back in the car we got, and a few minutes later we were nicely parked up on street for free.

I’d been in touch with the Aussie I met in Workington. He’d be in the Eagle before the game, so if we wanted to pop in for a pint, he’d be pleased to see me, he said. Yeah, ok. I can take a hint. I wasn’t looking for a lasting friendship anyway!

With dry throats, we proceeded along Anlaby Road and called in at a pub nearer the ground instead. There in the corner, beer in hand, was my Aussie mate. Gotcha. It’ll take more than that to shake me off fella! A quick catch up, and exchange of views on the forthcoming match. Could be a tough one for England we agreed. Wouldn’t be a surprise if Fiji scored first, and Aussie had £250 on one to do just that. I’m not sure if it was on the Fijian who did actually score first, but if it was, Aussie is probably still celebrating in the pub now.

Off to the ground we marched, past the army recruitment tents in the park. “What about joining the army love? It’ll make a man of you.” I suggested to my daughter. She didn’t seem taken with the idea though and I suspect my plans to knock through from my man cave into her bedroom will have to be put on hold.

Inside the ground, we learned of the death of Steve Prescott earlier that day. I can’t possibly do justice to someone like him. Suffice to say he was a good rugby league player, who was struck down with terminal cancer several years ago. He didn’t have long to live he was told, but he fought cancer for years, and set out on an incredible fundraising programme, doing physical feats I couldn’t possibly imagine undertaking. He was incredibly brave and had far more gumption in the face of his cancer, than I could possibly ever imagine I would have if I were in that situation. He died aged 39.

As the game got underway, it became apparent that as I feared, Fiji were not about to roll over and let us tickle their tummies. The swines kept coming at us, and even had the cheek to score first. Shortly before half-time they were 6-0 up. I was telling myself that we’d already qualified, and it didn’t really matter whether we finished second or third in our group. However, I was struggling to convince myself really, that we could lose to Italy and Fiji before going on to win the World Cup at the end of November.

It wasn’t going well, but honestly, I’ve supported Peterborough United at soccer, Wakefield Trinity at rugby league and now England. Come on, I’ve done the hard yards, cut me some slack please! But fear not, Sam Burgess to the rescue. “They call me Slammin'”. Indeed they do Sam. Russell Crowe might have voiced a documentary on Sam, and described him as a “Sparkly eyed man”. But it was my eyes that were sparkling now. Get in. 6-6 at half-time.

Come the second half, England were superb and blew the Fijians off the park. I could sit back and relax. Tough opposition but we’d put them to bed 34-12.

Now home and get ready to watch the Aussies take on Ireland on the telly. Even the 20 minute delay on the motorway home for an ‘incident’ that didn’t seem to exist, couldn’t dampen my mood. Back home, and refuelled by the power of pizza and speckled hen (3 for £5 in the co-op, plus you get your divvy!), I settled down to watch the match from Limerick.

Two weeks in, and this was the first match I was going to watch live on the TV. It was a strange experience. This was the third match I’d missed, but the others had been well underway before I’d got home from my chosen match. This one I’d missed, simply because those numbskulls at Humberside airport, haven’t spotted the potential windfall to be had from regular flights to Shannon airport on a Saturday evening. So much for private enterprise! You can have that business idea on me lads.

As expected the Aussies ran out comfortable winners against the Wolfhounds. It was a fairly unspectacular match, but my Wigan mate and his wife, got a great view from the stand.

Today it was off to Halifax. Italy v Tonga was the match. It kicked off at 4pm, but I wanted to be in the pub by 2pm to watch the Wales v Cook Islands match on the TV. I couldn’t find a pub that advertised it had Premier Sports and so would have the game on. Instead, I played safe. Weatherspoons. You know what you’re getting and they have Wi-Fi so I could watch the game on Premier player via my I-pad.

I didn’t realise until today, that you can’t watch Premier player through public wifi. Every day’s a school day. So it was on to my carefully guarded mobile data allowance. I’m new to this lark, so I’m not too sure how it works, or exactly how long 1GB lasts, but I’ve only got to go until Friday for my next lot, and I’ve only used 150MB so far this month. Sure enough the data was gobbled up, most of it no doubt used on all that buffering every time Wales got near the try line. “And Wales are through the defence…” Buffer, buffer. “Wonderful try that from Wales. A pure pleasure to see.” Yeah, I’m sure it was. I’ll give you buffer, buffer.

So anyway, what I got for my half month’s worth of data allowance, was that Wales were poor in the first half, they fought back, and then in true Welsh fashion suffered yet another glorious defeat. I’ll watch it properly when I get home.

We trooped off to the Shay Stadium for this afternoon’s main event. Italy v Tonga. Italy win, they are in the quarter-finals. Tonga win, and Scotland qualify. We were handed an Italian flag on our way to the ground. Italy? It’ll take more than a small flag for me to betray my Tongan heritage. Well, I was supporting them today anyway. Go for the underdogs, and give the Scots a chance in to the bargain.

It was a cracker. If England v Fiji was tight in the first half, it had nothing on this one. 2-0 to Tonga at the break. “Go for two” we were all screaming at Tonga when they were awarded a penalty by the sticks. Normally in league, you’d be booed for taking such a kick at goal. The crowd would have sung out a sarcastic chorus of the rugby union anthem “Swing low”. Kicking penalties is for union, we score tries in league, but today for the sake of Scotland we’ll make an exception. Go for goal Jonny.

The second half was equally tight, both defences were magnificent, but eventually Tonga increased the lead and finally scored again right at the end, to win 16-0. Tonga had won. Italy, the surprise package of the World Cup, had amazingly finished bottom of their group, and Scotland had qualified for a quarter-final showdown with the World Champions, New Zealand.

As Scotland coach, Steve McCormack put it.

Sonny Bill is human after all

Two games, but only possible to attend one. That was the dilemma on day two of the World Cup. I’d got my ticket for Papua New Guinea and France at Craven Park in Hull. It was a 4pm kick-off, with the Samoa v New Zealand match over in Warrington kicking off two hours later. I’d programmed Premier Sports to record that one, to watch as soon as I got home.

I set off later for Hull than I’d intended. Partly to accommodate my youngest, for whom I’d bought tickets, but who I could sense was flagging after the trip to Wales and partly because I was spending the morning catching up with yesterday’s matches. Thank goodness for that extra hour, with the clocks going back.

I was pretty pleased with the BBC’s coverage of the opening day, although there was little of the opening ceremony, but the two games were treated well, and Dave Woods is a great commentator of rugby league. Mark Chapman is also establishing himself as a really good anchor for the Beeb’s rugby league coverage. The team on the BBC is established, and I guess like everyone else I’ve got those I like and those I don’t, and the less said about Jonathan Davies, the better.

I was more keen to see how Premier Sports had done. They are the principal broadcaster for the World Cup. Their NRL coverage is taken straight from Australia, and the Championship programmes are fairly cheap and cheerful, so I wasn’t too sure how they would deal with the World Cup. Their coverage started earlier than on the BBC, so they did capture much more of the opening ceremony that set the tone for the day. Andrew Voss was the man that Premier Sports had flown over to host their coverage of the World Cup and he was a revelation. Clearly very knowledgeable of the players from the NRL, he has a great style and I’ll enjoy listening to his commentary on catch-up.

In the afternoon, we made our way to Hull and parked up without any difficulty in my usual spot. There wasn’t much sign of life, and the ease of parking had me a little worried. I even did a mental check to convince myself that I’d got the kick-off time correct. As we got to the ground, the crowd came into view and it was obvious that we would have a decent turn-out after all.

As it happened a crowd of 7451, about what Hull KR get for a Super League fixture were in attendance. The wind was up, and the rain came down, but France and crowd favourites Papua New Guinea didn’t let us down. I’d got a side bet on with my youngest, who had decided that France would win. I think this had more to do with the good looks of Theo Fages than any studying of the form book, but my daughter had decided that her Theo would bring Les Bleus home.

The fact everyone else in the crowd was supporting PNG was a touch unfortunate, especially when the Kumuls were awarded a penalty in front of the sticks, two minutes from time and a point behind. The wind was blowing down the pitch (when isn’t it at Craven Park), but when David Mead put his kick wide, the crowd held their heads in their hands, whilst Theo’s newest fan, thrust her hands in the air in celebration. France had beaten the Papuans 9-8.

We shot back across the M62 to Wakey and I was able to start watching the match from the Halliwell Jones stadium whilst the second half was still underway. Never used to be able to do that when we relied on a video recorder and had to keep busy until the end of the match, trying to avoid knowing the score.

The bold statistics show that New Zealand beat Samoa 42-24, but that barley touches upon the story. In front of a packed stadium, Samoa came from 22-0 down to give the Kiwis a real test. The crowd got behind the underdogs and Samoa responded. It was a cracking atmosphere, Andrew Voss’ commentary was excellent and we had another memorable moment that will be on the highlight DVD. With the David Mead miss in Hull, we had the Sonny Bill Williams slip in Warrington. SBW showed great class to break the Samoan defence and stroll in for a try after the Samoan fightback, but amazingly Sonny slipped before touching down and put a foot in touch. SBW makes mistakes? Surely not.

The game was ferocious, with big hits and superb skill, all played out in front of a noisy Warrington crowd. It will be one of those matches that is  talked about in years to come by all those who either played in it or who had the fortune to watch it. This is what the World Cup is all about.

So day two was even better than day one. We had a good crowd in Hull and a great crowd in Warrington. With both matches providing a talking point we’ll be discussing for a long time. In a week’s time, Samoa will play PNG at Craven Park, in a match that may well determine who qualifies for the quarter-finals. Wow. That should be some game.

Normal service resumed as Kiwis and Cooks serve up a treat

Saturday’s double header at Salford which culminated in Italy beating England left me really flat. Things had been coming along quite nicely with the World Cup build up; the media coverage, the ticket sales, the squads flying in and England returning from South Africa. Then the talking stopped and the action started. It wasn’t so much that the players popped that balloon, it was more like one of those helium filled ones you buy the kids that slowly sinks to the floor.

Boy was I down this morning. Reading the Internet forums only made it worse, as fans laid into Steve McNamara and Kevin Sinfield. Most comments came from people who hadn’t seen the game, but hey, let’s not allow the facts to get in the way of our prejudices.

I was in two minds whether to still go to Doncaster for the New Zealand v Cook Islands match this afternoon. My mood wasn’t the best, it was live on Premier Sports and it was £20. As the morning passed, the dark clouds lifted and I was up for another game.

Doncaster’s only a short drive from Wakey. The roads were clear and with REM, The Jam and Dolly Parton on shuffle on the CD player, a very pleasant 35 minutes it was too.

There were 1412 at Featherstone yesterday to watch Papua New Guinea beat Scotland and I was expecting something similar today, but it was soon clear that a bigger crowd than that was in attendance. The figure was given as 4638 which was bigger than the crowd that bothered to turn up in Salford yesterday for the England fiasco and the biggest crowd for a rugby league match in Doncaster for some time.

Both the Kiwis and the Cooks have done great work in Doncaster this week, with the haka by the children at Norton school, one of the highlights of the week.

Pre game, there were groups from both the Cook Islands and New Zealand doing traditional dancing in front of the stand which the fans were filling. It wasn’t the coldest day, but I’d got my England jacket and World Cup beanie on, whilst the dancers were wearing less than I do, when I’m topping up my tan on the beach at Scarborough.

The match went to form. The Kiwis were too strong, running out 50-0 winners, but the mood in the ground was of fun. We were seeing something different. The youngsters in the crowd were shouting for the team that had visited their school, with as many shouting for New Zealand as were wearing green Cook Island t-shirts. In general, the speccies were very appreciative of what the Kiwis had to offer, but were all willing the Cooks to score. Phil Bentham getting a round of boos, when the video ref ruled out a Cook Island ‘try’, but it was all good natured.

After the game it was good to see both sides come over to thank the fans and to receive a generous round of applause for a good afternoon’s rugby.

It was then back home to watch it all again on Premier Sports. Good, solid coverage from the World Cup broadcasters. The signal was lost for a short while, early in the first half, and so TV viewers missed the first two Kiwi tries. I like Premier Sports’ coverage of rugby league. It’s good, honest coverage of the game, with intelligent commentary, rather than the knockabout bluster we get from Eddie and Stevo on Sky.

The fact I won’t have to suffer those two spoiling the World Cup coverage is a plus in my book, but I do worry about Premier Sports’ capability to broadcast all 28 matches live. The technology always seems a bit iffy. It’s like Premier Sports are still on dial-up, whilst Sky are on SuperFast broadband, but I’m quite happy with cheap and cheerful. We’ve got the BBC for the glamour matches anyway, though I expect I’ll tape them both to compare and contrast when I get back from the game.

So thank you New Zealand and Cook Islands, as my daughters would say, you’ve turned my frown upside down. My glass is half-full again and no matter what happens, we’re going to see some sights and have some fun over the next few weeks.