While I was in Leicester, England back on Tuesday October 6th, I
wound up going to see a Rugby World Cup match between Canada & Romania (Pool D) at Leicester City Stadium aka King Power Stadium, home of the
Leicester City FC of the English Premier League.
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| Wilko |
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| Rob, Angela Campion & I |
After my pal Rob Campion
& I spend a little time at his house, we went out & he drove us
over to a nearby neighborhood where we could park the car on the street for free. By
doing so, we were able to take a twenty minute walk to the Stadium.
Since it was raining at the time, Rob let me borrow some rain gear. Once
we got out of the car, we started walking. On the way, we stopped off
at a local chain store that sells housewares called Wilko. Rob's wife Angela works there. We stopped
in for a short time to say hello. It was great to see her again. We initially met when they visited the States for the first time in
September.
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| Outside Leicester City Stadium |
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| Canada vs. Romania Pool D |
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| Me & Rob Campion |
After we said goodbye, Rob & I continued
to make our way over to the Stadium. As we got close, we saw a rainbow.
Thankfully the rain ended in
time for the match to be played without a hitch. When we got to the
Stadium, Rob & I walked around the outside of the venue. We took
pictures & enjoyed the atmosphere before we headed inside. Rob got
us tickets when they went on sale back in July. He wound up buying a
package that included a few other matches they were playing there as
well. Our seats wound up being in the corner of the pitch. It worked out
well as the section right next to our seats was relatively empty so we
were able to move over. As a result, we had some stretching room. Since
there were restrictions once you got inside, we were limited to where we
could walk around. As a result, we weren't able to meet up with my pal
Sean MacDonald who was also at the match. He was sitting in a different
part of the Stadium. We wound meeting him outside by the team store
afterwards.
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| View from our seats |
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| Scrum |
As
for the match we saw, Sean was disappointed as his country Canada blew a
15-0 lead they had at halftime. In the second half, Romania came
alive. They scored 17 unanswered points as they went on to defeat
Canada, 17-15 overcoming the largest deficit to ever win a Rugby World Cup match. As a result, we all saw history. We also got to see some scrums, tries, conversions &
penalty kicks. It was fun watching people from both countries root on
their teams.
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| Romania celebrates their victory |
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| Thank you for attending RWC 2015 |
Unfortunately
here in the United States even though we have a National team, rugby is
one sport that I barely know exists. This was only the second rugby
match I've witnessed live. The other one was in Melbourne, Australia. I
personally enjoy watching it. I plan to get more involved as time goes
on.
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| Dinner at Turtle Bay |
Once
we got outside, Rob & I met up with Sean. We proceeded to walk back
to Rob's car together. We all went to have dinner. We wound up eating
at Turtle Bay which was a Caribbean restaurant within walking distance
of the train station. I wound up having some ribs that came with cole
slaw & fries. I also had a local craft beer. While we ate, we all
got to share our different travel experiences along with our passion for
watching live sporting events. We all had a great time spending
precious time together. While Rob showed me around the City & the suburbs before the
rugby match, Sean told us he went to visit King Richard III's dynasty death & discovery. It was a learning experience for all of us.
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| Sean MacDonald, Rob Campion & I |
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| King Richard III Pub |
After
we finished eating, we said our goodbyes. Rob went back to his car
& he drove home while Sean & I walked over to the train station
to catch our 9:58PM train back to London which arrived at St. Pancras at
11:30PM. Sean & I said our goodbyes. He was heading back home that
Wednesday morning. As for me, I had a few more days there before I
returned back home.
Stay tuned for another special post that will go into detail how I spent that Wednesday.
Thank you for reading & following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
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