Yay rugby! As most people reading this know, I used to be a rugby player in college. I love me some rugby, and rugby people are also pretty special. Short bus special, but I'm loving them.
Since the Rugby World Cup began a few weeks ago, Montpellier (which is one of the cities where the matches are taking place) has been overrun with rugby fans (and players) from around the world. It is pretty fun, mostly because they are overwhelmingly British, Australian, and American and are loud, obnoxious and English-speaking just the way the French like it. Besides the amusement of watching grown men cry when their team loses, it is also pretty funny to observe the French people sneering at them on a regular basis as they walk down the street proudly advertising their foreignness with their country's respective jerseys.
Anyway, I have been enjoying the World Cup since it started by watching rugby games on TV (even one of my 3 free channels shows the games) and downtown on the big screens they put up in the town center. But Wednesday night, I got to see my first game in person!
I was really excited when my friend Paul emailed me to tell me he wanted to come visit and go see a rugby game. So, we got tickets to the USA v. Samoa game in St. Etienne, since Paul couldn't make it for the other USA games being played in Montpellier. Besides cheering for our boys in red, white and blue, we figured of all of the games in their pool, this was the one they MIGHT have a chance to win!
So, Paul and I left Montpellier on Wednesday afternoon for what turned out to be quite an adventure! He rented a car- the "Panda" (made by Fiat, that's its real name!) and we took to the autoroutes to make the game. We were making pretty good time cruising through the southeast of France, until we hit MAJOR traffic coming out of Lyon and into St. Etienne.
Tragic. We barely moved for an hour and started to watch the minutes until kick-off count down...from inside our car. Finally we made it into the city and the neon signs on the highway pointed us toward the stadium. We later found out that there were 35,000 people attending the match, in a city which usually has a population of 140,000, so I guess the town isn't really equipped for that kind of influx of people.
We parked French-style on the side of an access ramp to another road, REALLY close to some woods. Thankfully the Panda handled it, and once we had her jammed up on the edge of the road, we started running- and I mean RUNNING toward the stadium, with a bunch of other people.
Paul and I ran hard for a few minutes before we finally saw a bus-stop where busses were taking people closer to the stadium, thankfully, since we seemed to be a few miles away. We jumped on the bus, and then when the bus stopped, ran the rest of the way to the stadium as fast as we could.
We arrived about 25 minutes into the first half, sadly, but at least we were there. The seats were great, but we had to sprint about 8 flights of stairs to make it there! My quads were burning by the time we got to our seats, it was definitely a work-out.
The stands were packed, which was kind of cool considering it was the two worst teams in the pool playing each other. There were a lot of people with both USA and Samoan flags, and everyone seemed to cheer for both sides. It was an atmosphere of sportsmanship, and people just seemed to enjoy good rugby (or bad as the case may be), which was the fun part.
Half-time also brought an interesting surprise when Paul and I went in search for the bathrooms. Not only were they down the 8 flights of stairs, but they were communal (read: men and women) bathrooms, and there was no line, just 200 people pushing and shoving their way in. I was NOT amused by this because men are gross, and men's bathrooms are usually much dirtier than women's. Not to mention, I was being pushed around by a bunch of rugby guys. Oh yeah, and it was those disgusting third world bathrooms that were NOT toilets, but holes in the ground and a place to put your feet while you squat.
I was totally grossed out, but at least I had some antibacterial hand wipes in my bag which I used to totally disinfect myself afterward. Ew.
The second half of the game proved totally exciting. The USA scored two tries and made a penalty kick, but sadly, wasn't able to make up for the lost ground of the first half. Samoa ended up winning 25-21, but it was a really fun half, and Paul and I were convinced that if the USA had 5 more minutes, they could have won!!!
After the game ended, Samoa did their haka again for the crowd....five times. It was pretty fun, and the guys were obviously happy (hey, they won 1 game!) and then received their "Thanks for participating in the World Cup" medals. How tragic, and little league-ish.
At that point Paul and I headed out of the stadium and started our (very VERY cold) hike back to the car. The upside of parking so far away is that at least you don't have to wait in traffic to get OUT of the stadium! So, we got on the highway really quickly and started back to Montpellier.
It was quite a long hike back, but we stopped mid-way and bought a baguette and some sandwich meat at a gas station as a little snack. We arrived back in Montpellier around 2:30am, not terribly late, but late.
I'm SUPPOSED to go to see USA v. South Africa on Sunday, but I haven't heard from the people with my tickets in a few weeks, so I'm hoping that's still on! We'll see what happens!
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