By Zara D
August 19 2003

A tale in Perpignan. Dedicated to: Ben, Glen, “Johnny be good”, Ricard and “The waiter”. Note: If you’re after the match report, head to page 2 to ‘cut the nonsense’, if you’re after wasting time at work, start at beginning.

Friday morning looms up all bright & breezy and this little Tiger got up mighty excited. Bags were packed, camera, spare batteries, 3 films, pad, 1 pen, 2 spare pens, tickets, euros. She was ready for anything. Saw a fella and his family in a Tigers shirt – but he wasn’t heading to Perpignan, off to Murcia instead! We sure do get around a lot!!

I won’t bore you with details of my trip… let’s just put it this way: -

A). Do not walk around anywhere in France, if you’re a single woman, alone, esp. late at night when walking back from a movie (Pirates des Caribes!). You get collared & have to make a quick dash for the hotel which isn’t an easy feat to achieve in little strappy sandals!

B). Stuff the maps, they don’t list the tiny little alley-ways one gets sucked into. Again, avoid at all costs if you’re a young, single woman… avoid also the middle eastern district as you’re prob. The only woman walking through that alley-way. Not a nice experience when you’re on your own with only a camera & some euros as ‘protection.

C). Watch where you walk – the French won’t let your mutt crap in the parks, but they can have crapping contests in the street. Not safe to walk.


NOTE TO LEICESTER TIGERS RFC: See what ‘supporters’ do for you? They travel great distances, place themselves in unsafe situations & contend with horrendous men and even fly when they get air-sickness & for what???? To scream & yell “C’MON TIGERS” in the middle of the opposition which is an unsafe & silly thing to do, WHILE on top of hyperventilating cos not enough oxygen is getting to your head cos you’re being too vocal. Don’t EVEN try to tell me that we don’t support you – that weekend was an experience to say the least!


Onto the rugby report. Lot’s of credit should go to TigersTart… we all know she does a grand job but I realised on Saturday that you’re so busy ‘reporting’ on the match that you don’t actually get to ‘see’ it. I went home after a great night out in the pub (thank you you chaps, you know who you are!) and got back to the hotel feeling rather blue cos I didn’t really see the match, hehe, the whole point of my going… but c’est la vie as the lovely froggies say… so once again, Kudos to Mademoiselle TT, her sacrifice is our gain!


Get to the Stadium with “Johnny be good”, he’d kindly let me share his cab as we were at the same hotel. So after a couple of “bier et une coca” he disappears to find his seat & I’m stood at the fence, shoving my camera through & snapping away at anything in shorts… ok, it was just pure luck that Monsieur Hamilton was just a few yards away, but I left & headed for my seat. The French as always never make anything easy & logical so therefore, there is absolutely no indication as to where seat 258 of R14 was… but I eventually found it – at the very end of the row I was walking through. Yes, I did get a lot of comments, none of which I can translate, thank god. Let’s just say laughter usually followed!


With only the players warming up, there was already a good atmosphere with the usual loud drum beats and that inescapable loud music – I felt I’d left a club afterwards. I do think the music was a ‘tad’ too much, especially as it sounded more like something from a German fete than from a French rugby match. Apparently, I was instantly recognisable with my “Hamilton” shirt on & heard “Hey Zara!” and had the pleasure of meeting Ben & Glen. They were in the opposite row, a few seats in.


I set up camera, set up notebook (much to the bemusement of the French until Ben & Glen explained I was in “journlismé”. Match starts & we’re off: -


Leicester Tigers

Stimpson, Akinyemi, Hipkiss, Gibson, Myring, Vesty, Ellis. Morris, Chuter, Nebbett, Hamilton, Deacon L, Abraham, Kronfeld (capt), Johnson W.



Reps (all used): Holford, Broadfoot, Ryder, Buckland, Deacon B, Skinner, Booth, Balding, Tierney.


Perpignan

Cermeno, Bomati, Marty, Giordani, Hunt, Edmonds, Fillol (capt). Freshwater, Grelon, Tournaire, Gaston, O’ Driscoll, Labat, Goutta, Mallier.



Reps (all used): Koniek, Porcu, Loustau, Mercier, Moreno, Debaty, Donevech, Rolland.


Scorers

Perpignan: tries Marty, Mallier, Cermeno, Edmonds; cons Edmonds (3), Cermeno; pens Edmonds.

Leicester Tigers: pens Myring (2)

1st minute into the game and there’s a scrum for the Tigers which Perpignan get and which promptly results in a penalty for the French. 1:55 3 pts to Perpignan. A minute later after what I can only call scuffling, the ref (weird chap he was!), calls a penalty to the Tigers – which our No. 11 promptly kicks into the corner, obviously we’re going for the big guns.

After 2 line-outs, resulting in some good, smooth passing, a lineout occurred for Perpignan, which they (i.e. Monsieur Edmonds) kicked to corner.


6:06 TRY for Perpignan. They just flew over the line from what I could see. After this, scrums started to get messy. Sorry Tigers, don’t know if it was down to them or Perpignan, but from 10 minutes onwards they did get messy, riding up, then slumping down with usually a turn at the end as a flourish!


After a few lost balls, i.e Perpignan throwing too far out and Tigers kicking to the side, a scrum occurred in which Tigers got the ball and Josh Kronfeld came into his own, taking the ball in a pass & just charging down the pitch. Alas, he didn’t get a great distance but he covered a fair few yards with three Perpignan players hanging off him. After having his thigh checked out, game was back on & Myring was given the opportunity to kick the penalty given, so 10 minutes into the game, the scores were tied.


The game was held mostly in the Tigers half, with Perpignan regularly chasing down the ball and after some play Perpignan kick it, following through & allowing Edmonds to score a try, with the conversion giving them the full 7.


Another penalty to Perpignan (do not ask why, in all honesty, this game did not make sense!) and another to Tigers resulted in 10 – 6 after 17 minutes. All of a sudden rucks seemed to be the order of the day and after a mish-mash of bodies on the pitch, Perpignan get the ball and some cross-passing confused the Tigers but Tierney got the ball & kicked to Akinyemi who alas dropped it. Chuter was doing the lineouts & Johno Jnr doing the catching and it has to be said, in the 1st half, this was the Tigers area with them getting a good number of them… what didn’t make sense was who got the line outs… at times, I really believe Perpignan & Tigers got line-outs which belonged to the opposition – ask the other supporters!


Joshie did another good run but for some reason this was disallowed. Like I said, the ref was weird! Manny Edmonds did a superb kick, way ahead of the pack but couldn’t get to it (either him or it was Bomati as couldn’t tell who was who as no programmes were produced for the match!) as a Tiger was right behind him & got to it first. The French let out a huge moan. It was after this, I believe Stimmo got sin-binned. What occurred next, I don’t know but quite frankly it was a bit bad – it was a pre-season friendly & nothing more but something was said over the tannoy which although I couldn’t translate, knew was rather insulting about Mr. Richards… French laughed & looked at us tigs to see what we’d do… we looked bewildered! I know a lot where after Ben & Glen to point out Stimmo after hearing the rumours… perhaps it was connected to that? Who knows!


Anyway, yet another penalty resulted in Edmonds earning three more pts for Perpignan. A ‘tennis’ match resulted with the ball being kicked into either side, then more play occurred. I do know one side got a slapped wrist for pulling down the line-out, but it was too far for me to distinguish who was in the wrong. More scrappy play occurred with lineouts, scrums and the like until after a long throw for the lineout from Chuter resulted in Vesty making a clear break with the ball who then threw it up – only for Perpignan to catch it.


A near-miss almost occurred after pressure from Perpignan when M. Edmonds kicked the ball over the Tigers try-line but thankfully he’d given it too much force & it went over the back line. Tigers did earn a couple of penalties in this first half but as Perpignan had the pressure on, these were used in trying to gain territory. There was a moments pause when Perpignan’s No. 6 got seriously knocked into a Tiger player & was flat out on the floor but a minute or two later, play resumed with the ball just being kicked to the side by both teams until half time. All through this, I didn’t know that so many yellow cards had been given out, incidents in the match just didn’t seem important enough to warrant such extremes.


In the 2nd half Perpignan did a charge down and planted themselves firmly in the opposition’s side and there it mostly stayed. A penalty was given to Perpignan after a Tiger dived into a ruck, I think ‘over the top’ type (perhaps a yellow card? Killing the ball etc). Aggression did raise it’s ugly head and a two players did hit it off on each other and Ref gets involved… perhaps that too resulted in a yellow card? Who can say?


The Tigers did display some nice passing again but alas, it wasn’t enough as Perpignan got hold of the ball & a maul and roll resulted in a near-miss try for the Yellow & Reds – only for a scrum to give Perpignan that extra help they needed for a try after 17 minutes. The Conversion made the score 20 – 6 and the French were ecstatic, to the point of it being almost like a “Nuremburg rally” in the words of Ben.


There was a major change of players by Dean Richards with only 18 minutes of the game left and Ross Broadfoot, just joined from London Irish makes his 1st Team Leicester debut at No. 10 position. (Sorry to embarrass the chap, but Congratulations on your A-level results!!). At this point Kronfeld was also taken off, which I think he was a little upset over, from how he acted to Deano but the game goes on as they say and Perpignan were quick to respond with a number of changes themselves. More kicking to corner and what I guess would be called scrappy play as nothing ever really got going, but there was a near-miss for the Tigers on the try line but there is some question over whether the ball was pushed down with force so a scrum resulted.


After more on-off play, Steve Booth (one of those put on w/ 18 minutes left), did some gorgeous, fancy foot work but sadly negated his Travolta moves by throwing the ball backwards – right into the arms of a Perpignan player. Not sure how but Boothie left soon afterwards & had his ankle all bandaged up. A try by Cermeno at 34 minutes with a conversion to follow meant Perpignan were 27 – 6.


Later in the match, Perpignan had the ball and a maul began. Next thing you saw was Will Skinner being yellow carded which I don’t think he was at all happy about. C’est la vie as they say, which Deano’s attitude was definitely. A quick pass from Manny to another player led to a near-miss try but after a scrum & turn, Edmonds was set up perfectly for a try & conversion meaning at 41:40, Perpignan won 34 – 6.


Had lots to drink (water & coca-cola!) at the outside bar with the above dedicatees then walked into town for more beverages at the pub by the canal, owned by the ex-French player (sorry, can’t remember name, ask Ben!). So with the stars above, lots of liquid consumed, good company & a digest of the match, on the nice, warm night, we parted company & went our separate ways.