I was initially excited about the prospect of a night of Sevens rugby during the close season, but the night the Falcons would be playing was right in the middle of my holiday in South Africa.  ESPN offered my only hope of seeing it.

So since Wednesday myself, wor lass and her ma have been in Cape Town, the area of Fish Hoek to be precise.  The lass's cousins invited us for a few drinks at a pub called the Victorian Arms on Thursday, that should have English sport, I thought.

After explaining to the barman that I had no wish to interrupt the regulars' watching of the Tour de France, it turned out they did not have English ESPN.

Yesterday ticked on and there was no sign of an English pub or a sports bar.  But there was an internet cafe.

Typing 'English pub Fish Hoek' into Google, I found a place called the Two and Sixpence Tavern in Simon's Town, just down the coast.  Excellent, so at 7.30pm (South Africa being an hour ahead of England) we headed off to Simon's Town.

The pub was a little tricky to find, but at four quid for three pints you can't complain.  It would have been nearer two quid during happy hour.

The owner wasn't sure if he had English ESPN, and pointed out that the second half of Leopards v Western Province was about to start.  No problem I said, the rugby I wanted to watch didn't start until almost 9pm (when the Falcons' first match started).

So we had something to eat, and Western Province sealed a comfortable win.  With a few minutes to go it looked tricky to get the TV turned over for 8.55pm, and then Leopards scored a try with the last play so there was still the conversion!

I then raced to the bar and asked for English ESPN to be put on.  I explained to this different barman that it was the channel that had Premier League soccer on.  He said there was no Premier League last night.  "I know, but the rugby I'd like to watch is on that channel."

So we went through the channels but found only American ESPN, and the barman said that was all there was.  Gutted!

Never mind, it was a long shot finding somewhere showing a club sevens tournament on the other side of the world anyway.  The bar owner said sorry as we left the pub, no bother mate.

And so as I upload this I have still not looked at the results from last night.  Is there a night in Bath in early August on the cards, or did we finish in the bottom half of last night's table?  Let's find out...

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