Monday, October 12, 2015

Fit for a prince

It is impossible to hide the disappointment of England’s early exit from the Rugby World Cup yet we must not forget that there are still numerous opportunities to enjoy world-class fixtures. I am still undecided on whom to support for the remainder of the tournament although I found a temporary distraction last week thanks to the Georgia versus Namibia match.

I bid for a wide mix of tickets in the ballot but as previously mentioned I was sadly unsuccessful. I had a limited budget and therefore low expectations so would have been delighted to watch any of the pool games in either of the Westcountry stadiums. The small capacities of the Gloucester and Exeter grounds combined the popularity of rugby in this part of the country resulted in no tickets; or so I thought.

A last minute opportunity arose thanks to a friend I bumped into a couple of weeks ago. This resulted in two tickets for the aforementioned game at Sandy Park to watch a team who I already held a natural affinity for. After three trips to Georgia this summer I felt it was obvious to support the Eastern Europeans in their quest to secure a second win. I was hoping for an excitingly close encounter and presumed it would therefore be a popular fixture; I did not however expect it to attract a royal attendance. The rumours of Prince Harry visiting obviously increased media interest in the match and if only I had heard this sooner I might have interpreted the smart casual dress code a little more accurately. My friend and I were intrigued by the heightened security in and around the seats we had been allocated. It soon became clear why I should have dressed a little smarter as the location of our box turned out to be good enough for royalty.