Suitably refreshed a few days off from live rugby Saturday 22nd September saw us set off for Marseille again but this time we decided to take the scenic route and go across country and visit Aix-en-Provence.  An excellent decision as the scenery was lovely and Aix itself is a most attractive town.  The plan was to take the short drive to Marseille after watching the, at that stage, vital England v Samoa game.  We duly positioned ourselves in an Irish bar and enjoyed the first half but then disaster struck when this, and seemingly every other, tv in Aix switched to cover the away game for Marseille football team.   Our protestations fell on deaf ears so we decided to set off for the short trip to Marseille itself and request text updates every ten minutes.  I was driving and was in heavy traffic when from memory the score got to 24-22, or something very similar, and we started to get very twitchy.  Common sense prevailed in the end and England scored a couple of late tries but not before we had taken a wrong turn and ended upon the wrong side of the tracks in Marseille itself.  This is very much not a move to be recommended in a city with a very poor reputation for crime and so we locked all the doors and paid great attention to the sat nav as we got back on to familiar territory as quickly as possible.  The game between Argentina and Namibia was OK but nothing special but as always it was good to see great players like Hernandez, Contepomi and our own two Pumas in action.  The Sunday saw us return to what had become our favourite host town in Montpellier for Australia v Fiji.  Montpellier as a city really pulled out all the stops and the weather played ball as well and was lovely throughout.  Although the games were played at the local football stadium the rugby club tradition of regional amateur rugby clubs coming along and opening up caravans or stalls and selling beer, food and souvenirs was continued.  This was a wonderful meeting place and we spent many happy hours here.  We patronised the stall run by Montpellier's Supporters Club as we were now regarded as honorary members and much kissing and hand shaking took place at every game - that was the men, I am not sure what the women did!  The game itself was easily enough won by Australia but Fiji scored a couple of belting tries and it was an entertaining and enjoyable day out.  Montpellier also had the distinct advantage in that it was only just over an hours drive from our villa, so we could be back home quite quickly.

 

 

Another couple of days off before setting off North again for games in St Etienne and Paris.  On the Wednesday we drove to St Etienne and watched Samoa v USA which on the surface of it had nothing at stake but actually turned out to be quite a good game.  Samoa should have won at a canter but unaccountably switched off when about 15 points up and a Mike Hercus inspired Eagles team clawed the lead back.  Samoa held on in the end but yet again another game between two of the lower ranked teams turned out to be well worth the effort.  We stayed at a hotel locally as we were on our way to Paris by tgv the following day in preparation for the decisive game between England and Tonga.  The tgv was a great experience again and the clans were gathering for the game.  Between family and friends we mustered a total of 14 for this game and luckily the first wet day in over 3 weeks dried up in time for us to make our way out to the Parc des Princes.  This was the scene of one of  the best Sale away days in recent memory but annoyingly this time there were no Can Can girls.  Tonga had come to play alright and took the lead at one stage when another of our old boys in Epi Taione bust through a couple of tackles and set up a try under the posts.  England started to play some quite decent rugby and we were all delighted to see Andy Farrell score his first England try towards the end.  Debate at this stage turned to how we would get on against Australia in the quarters and I was in a minority in believing that we had a good chance and I uttered the immortal words "I think Sheridan and the forwards can out muscle them in the scrum and then we have a chance".  How perceptive was that then eh?

 

The next day was a Saturday and it was back on the tgv for St Etienne again this time to watch another crunch game, Scotland v Italy.  Just as we arrived in St Etienne we heard that Fiji had beaten Wales and it has to be said this caused some pleasure in certain quarters of our group.  The actual game itself was absolutely dire and any rugby that was played was from the more enterprising Italians.  Scotland undoubtedly came with a limited game plan for Paterson to kick the penalties, and he did it very well but there was no entertainment involved and all of the Scots near us were distinctly unhappy with the performance.  It had been one of our worst games and as Sale fans we had the concerning sight of Rory Lamont leaving the field early in the game with what looked like a serious injury - thankfully this was not the case.  A long drive back to the villa arriving back in the early hours of Sunday with only one more group game to go.  This was between South Africa and USA in our favoured Montpellier location and whilst it was an easy victory for SA the Americans did score a candidate for try of the tournament.  The US right wing Ngwenya managed to go round Bryan Habana from a standing start, beat another man and score under the posts.  A magical try which brought the house down, apart from a couple of sour faced Afrikaners who were sat close to us.  Mike Hercus played well again for the Eagles and he had captained his team excellently and led from the front in the three games we saw them play.

 

 

We left our villa with some sadness on the Saturday of the first Quarter Final.  We had all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there, it had been a good base and the games we had not attended we had watched on tv because we had taken Sky + with us.  Even about a year in advance I had not been able to get a reasonably priced hotel in Marseille for the QF weekend, no doubt because many tour groups had blocked booked all the hotels so people could see two Quarter Finals in two days in the same city.  We were staying at a lovely Logis de France hotel a bit north of Aix but still relatively close to Marseille and we duly went there and dumped our stuff  before setting off for Marseille by public transport. Most England supporters were hopeful rather than confident and the Aussie supporters we spoke to had not even consiered the possibility of defeat.  We took our place in what were the worst seats of the whole tournament, high up in a massive stadium and just about as far from the pitch as was possible to be and a view partially blocked by a stairway barrier.  That, however, did not stop us enjoying a truly wonderful afternoon.  Despite giving away two inexplicable penalties in the first two scrums my prediction of English forward dominance was coming well and truly true and Sherri was having the game of his life.  The Aussie backs looked dangerous but luckily made several errors at crucial times.  Mortlock could have wrecked things with a hard-ish penalty with a couple of minutes to go but the final whistle unleashed an explosion of English joy.  We had already met up with Mr and Mrs ex-Top Tier Cheadle (Marion and Dave) and Beemer Bird (Sheena) veterans of European trips over the years and there were some very happy Sale fans amongst tens of thousands of delirious other England supporters. 

 

 

 

We had now beaten Australia in three of the last four World Cups and a large number of England supporters were intent on letting the Aussie supporters know about it.  To be fair to our Antipodean cousins without exception every one that I spoke to took the defeat with good grace and congratulated us on the win.  One memorable exception was a long haired blonde guy sitting in the front seat of a coach amongst the fleet that was ferrying fans away after the match.  There had been much good natured shouting and waving but this guy was looking really glum and would not look at us.  This naturally made him the target of yet more attention as his coach was stopped at the lights and when it moved off he gave us the one finger salute.  Not surprisingly this resulted in roars of abuse and numerous gestures in return with some of the more athletic England supporters running down the road giving their opinions!  The atmosphere amongst all the fans, from both sides, was amongst the best I have ever experienced in my rugby watching career but we had to leave as we intended watching the France v New Zealand Quarter Final back in Aix.  The public transport system which until this point had been brilliant throughout the whole trip now let us down and it was virtually impossible to get back to Aix so it was into 2 taxis for a 60 euro trip back and great amusement was had with one of the drivers who had Wilkinson, his magnificently named dog with him - apparently he had carried Jonny's parents at some stage in the past.  Had we known we would need to get a taxi we would have stayed in Marseille because apparently the atmosphere near the big screens in the Old Port was something to behold.  As it was we got back to Aix en Provence and then watched with a bar full of French fans their fantastic victory over the All Blacks.  As the second half wore on and the French started to believe their team might win the place really started rocking and the final whistle unleashed a volcanic eruption of joy.  There is no other way of describing it than the town just went berserk.  The large fountain in the centre of town was taken over by hundreds of young people and cars getting past had a very hard time as we found to our cost.  Back to the hotel and the end of a totally magnificent day with 2 Southern Hemisphere giants slayed by the much derided NH weaklings.  You don't get many days like that in your rugby watching career.

 

We were back in Marseille the following day for the South Africa v Fiji quarter final.  We all hoped that Fiji could do it again but I don't think any of us believed it and so it turned out but not before a magnificent 10 minutes when they came from 20 - 6 down to 20 - 20 with a man in the bin.  Just like the 7's they are so famous for the ball was thrown all over the place and had it not been for an excellent last ditch tackle from Wilhelmse then Fiji would have actually taken the lead.  The Saffers just switched up a gear though and scored a couple more tries to bring some sanity back to the game.

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