All Blacks vs Wales

Well, I've had to travel to the other side of the world to get to my first All Blacks game for as long as I can remember but it was well worth it. A group of 7 of us made the trek to Cardiff on Saturday morning, and after about 3 hours of driving we made it and finished up on the top floor of a parking building about a 5 minute walk from Millennium Stadium.

We were treated to a few cans of genuine imported Speights before the game as we made the most of the patches of good weather and lack of other people around in a relaxing build up to the test match.





The rental car provided great seating, both in and out of the car but things got a bit confusing as we tried to navigate the last few metres to the Stadium......



Once we were inside the Stadium, it didn't really matter what the weather was doing outside. With the roof closed it was quite comfortable and perfect conditions for some good rugby.



It was fair to say that the crowd was furious when the All Blacks failed to perform the haka for reasons still unknown to us, but after they started running in the tries this was all but forgotten and the crowd soon good into the game with a lot of noise, some brilliant singing and flag waving.



At the end of the game, the authorities clearly thought that the rugby hadn't cut up the field enough to justify paying the groundstaff so took drastic action to rectify the situation. This was all a bit confusing but apparently the turf is regularly replaced, and they were having the Wales Rally GB (formally the Lombard RAC - thanks Burt) there in the next few days anyway.



After visiting a couple of pubs after the game it was back to the car for the trip back. Hamish performed brilliantly as tour leader and driver and we were home safe and sound back in London by about 1am in time for some Ashes viewing and falling asleep on the couch - a fitting end to a great day.