Ouseburn's Twickenham Diary

By Ouseburn (on 12/11/02)
November 12 2002

While the vast majority of us were huddled round our TV sets, were visiting our Sky owning relatives, or had ensconced ourselves in the clubhouse at Kingston Park to watch the England v All Blacks test match, Ouseburn was one of the lucky ones at Twickenham...

Saturday 9th November, 2002

Dry/ Cold Day Temp., 5°

0600 : Pulled out of the driveway on our way to Twickenham, soup and sandwiches packed the night before ready for our picnic.

0840 : Comfort and refreshment stop - Leicester Forrest (no sight of any Tigers) - 20 mins allowed only as per our Scout Master - my hubby!  

0955 : J12 - M1 = Major accident - not looking good now time wise as it normally takes us 5 hours to do this trip? Diverted via Dunstable (quite a nice place really ) but not when you are in a hurry to get to Twicks., crawled along counting the sheep and the grass - back onto the M1J9 by 1110 - phew!  

1115 : J6a - this is the turn off for the M25 - aagghh roadwork’s !!  

1132 : M4  

1137 : J3/A312 road to Twickenham.  

1215 : Twickenham - we have arrived - abandon the car at Whitton and walk swiftly down the High Street passing the Admiral Nelson Pub on the way - the smell of their Barbecue was delicious cant stop, but promised Mally would get pictures of the team coach arriving. The team coach normally arrives between 1230 and 1300, so it was getting very neat for time.  

1250 : The England Coach arrives black with the red rose of England emblazoned on the side, out come the players Dawson, Healey (someone in the crowd shouts - like your wig Austin)to which he tugs at his hair and has a bit banter to the roars of laughter from the crowd. They're all coming out now Hill, Johnson, Robinson, Wilkinson - im trying hard not to get jostled when taking my photos but it's very difficult lots of cheering from the crowd “Come on England” “go get them boys” “come on Jonny” and they all slip into the inner sanctum we all know called the “Home of Rugby”.  

1300 : Just in front of the main entrance to Twickenham some New Zealand fans are demonstrating the Haka for the crowd - the roars and cheers can be heard all over after they finished. Here comes the New Zealand coach someone shouts and finally after all of these years the all Blacks were stepping off the coach in front of me - Jonah Lomu is huge - he trotted off listening to his walkman whilst a minder picked his kit-bag up for him. Lots of cheering not as loud but sufficient to tell us that there were thousands of New Zealand fans at Twickenham for this match.  

1315 : Lunch - Picnic in the West Car Park - No, No, not for me champagne (don’t like the stuff), good old Stella and sarniesJ Feast fit for a Falcon on a raid down south.  

1345 : Into the ground, check out our seats - this is one of my favourite times when the stadium is more or less empty and the England team come out for their warm up - I love to watch the warm up session and I’m right in there with my binoculars for the group huddle and more.  

1420 : The teams are out, the Divas have sung and the Fireworks my goodness they were good this time around and then a minutes silence for those who died for us all during the world wars, the anthems and then. THE HAKA no doubt about it we all wanted to see this - The crowd replied with a deafening Swing Low (some say it was wrong of the crowd - disrespectful). I don’t think so, I think it lifted our guys no end.  

1430 : Here we go! - What a match, the speed at which the All Blacks moved was to coin a rugby phrase Awesome! Sometimes it looked like our guys were treading water - some panic play on both sides and some fantastic play also. I felt everyone in the team played their part on in this match but special mention goes to Lewis Moody, Richard Hill, Simpson-Daniel and our very own Jonny Wilkinson. We tend to celebrate with a swig of Courvoisier Brandy from the hip flasks every time a penalty / drop goal or try is scored - well you can imagine can't you - we were becoming quite merry. This match for me will live in my memory, its up there with the back to back grand slams of Carling’s days!  

My only disappointment some of the New Zealand fans in the northwest corner who rang cow / donkey bells when they thought an England player made a mistake and the constant booing of JW when taking kicks and the shouting of boring, boring when he took a penalty just before half time (he missed it). So no wonder Mehertens got the full wrath of the Twickenham crowd when he went for the posts in the second half. Sky sports commentator Stuart Barnes did not understand why the crowd were booing and shouting boring to Mehertens - don’t think he must have heard the New Zealand fans in the first half as the noise in the stadium was defending throughout. No more so than in the last few moments when Ben Cohen tackled Blair (I think that's who it was) and then Ben Kay at the line-out - oh my good lord - I’m on the edge of My seat - That’s it the ref., has blown up for full time - WE HAVE WON!!!!!!!!!!    

England have seen off the All Blacks.  

England 31 vs. New Zealand 28  

1630 : Trotted around the ground to check out our seats for next week against Australia and the Boks the week after - they all look ok! - can't wait now.  

1645 : Made our way back to the car - my calves are aching, just goes to show I have not played golf for a while! Quick coffee.  

1715 : Set off, filled up with petrol and we are back on our way home again only one stop - sharing the driving.

Temp., London 11° very nice for this time of year.

2215 : Pulled into the driveway - home at last, 5 hours this time, much better - Temp Newcastle 3° - just goes to show what a few miles does?

2230 : Quick super and into bed to watch the whole match again on Video! Drinking the brandy again - getting nervous even though I knew we had won - oh my goodness - lights out 0230am.

What a day ! Hope those pics., come out ok?

And guess what I’m going to do it all again next week - yippee!!!!!!!!

Ouseburn over and out.