Good Game

Mates on Tour. Or, to be accurate, the regular three season ticket holders at the semi-final of the European Rugby Union Challenge Cup. La Rochelle (our team) received Sale Sharks. As ever, the other French season ticket holders around us have difficulty understanding that we can support a non-English side whenever we play against one. They always ask ‘who are you supporting today?’ One day they they will understand. The pic was taken before the game with the La Rochelle mascot (he did, again, check that we were Stade Rochelais supporters before agreeing to have a pic with the three mad Englishmen). We wanted a happy pic in case the result didn’t go our way. In the event, La Rochelle won 24-20. It was in spite of the best efforts of the officials who seemed to want Sale to be in it right to the last gasp. We are partisan, I accept, but Nigel Owen was the ref and he is normally so good. He had an off day at the office, if I am being honest and as impartial as I can be. Still, we won and are through to the final in Newcastle on 10 May. Our next problem is that we will be playing Clermont, who we have never beaten in any competition. Ho Hum. The final will, as a result, be an all-French affair in the UK. I wonder how many tickets will be snatched up by the locals (suspect not too many - therefore many available if we decide to go). Onwards and upwards.