Wasps
Tour report: Lions 2013 Part Two - Sydney
Wasps Wonder Boy
By WaspieKev
August 6 2013
Following the one point defeat in Melbourne the night before and with the series poised at 1-1, I collected my belongings and checked out of my apartment in South Yarra for the flight to Sydney. The Lions supporters were in a trance as they gazed aimlessly at the check-in boards at Tullamarine airport. The shock of that last-gasp missed penalty had finally sunk in.
It was like a scene out of Airplane as I waited for my Jetstar flight. “Would all passengers waiting for flight JQ514 to Melbourne please go to gate 30”, followed at 15 minute intervals by “ditto - gate 28” and again followed by “ditto - gate 26”. I think Gate 24 was finally the one they managed to settle on. This gave me the opportunity though to watch the Lions party queue up and board their Qantas flight to Noosa for their last training camp before the 3rd test. Poor old 1/2p was a picture of isolated dejection whilst the rest of the squad were focussing on their mobiles or iPads, but players such as George North, Tom Croft and Adam Jones were quite happy to stand around and chat or pose for photos. I sneaked one of Christian Wade too! I eventually boarded my plane long after they had departed and survived a completely uneventful 54 minute journey to Sydney.
Sydney welcomed me with the novelty of buses instead of trams. In the excitement of using such a mode of transport I managed to get off at the wrong stop in the middle of a transvestite area. Now, despite the fact it was mid-afternoon, whether the 2m tall guys in stiletto’s wearing stunning make-up and gorgeous sequined dresses were on their way out or on their way home after a heavy night I have no idea, but I thought better of asking them for directions to my hotel. After an hour or so walking round in circles dragging a case that seemed almost twice as heavy as it had started out at Heathrow it might well have been considered acceptable for me to tag along with one of them but as luck would have it, like an oasis in the desert, my hotel appeared.
At 3am the following morning I was woken by the sound of screeching parakeets sitting in a tree outside my window. Over the next week I’d get more used to this every day – not! Anyway, that was my cue to go and meet my wife Fiona at Sydney Airport. Carefully dodging the night-time revellers, trannies and downright weird, I arrived in good time. I draped my Wasps flag over the barrier and waited patiently for her arrival. And waited. And waited. And waited. This wasn’t looking good and I assumed she’d been dragged away screaming to a detention centre for the heinous crime of trying to smuggle in a half-eaten packet of Polos. I rushed to the information desk to demand why she hadn’t appeared even though her flight had landed an hour or so previously. If I recall correctly, the conversation went along the lines of: “Has SQ308 landed yet please?” “Yes sir, an hour ago - your wife will be exiting through zone E” “What, you mean there’s more than one exit?” “Yes sir, it states it clearly on the arrivals boards” “What arrivals boards?” Oops! Anyway, all’s well that ends well and as she’d only been waiting there for 30 minutes holding her dead phone I think I just about got away with it. Neither of us had suffered with jet-lag after our flights so after dumping the cases at the hotel (via the correct bus stop) it was out and about straight away.
The 3rd Test seemed weeks away so we did all the touristy things to while away the time. We visited the Blue Mountains, Manly beaches, The Rocks, Circular Quay, tried to play a didgeridoo without success, strolled round the Botanical Gardens and ambled 7km along the stunning Eastern Coastal route from Coogee to Bondi Beach (where I presume my application as a lifeguard is still under consideration) and of course went to the Bridge and Opera House. What a fantastic city – a bit in your face and certainly not as laid back or attractive as Melbourne – but still a great place to visit. What’s more, as if by royal decree the worst winter rains for 6 years were replaced by glorious sunshine.
Before we knew it Saturday was upon us and Sydney had been getting redder by the day, as had my head without any sun screen on it. Whether this was fans flying in for the final test or those who had holidayed outside of Sydney and travelled in made no difference - they were there in their thousands. However this time there was extensive advertising and bunting all over the city and the atmosphere was simply electric. Everybody knew what was going on and you couldn’t walk past an Aussie without hearing “Go Wallabies” ringing out. I decided to ditch my unlucky red Lions shirt for the match and wear what my Sarries mate called a Lions “training shirt”. I didn’t care, as I needed to bring a change of luck to the team. I was obviously a bad omen wearing my red one and having never seen the Lions win live was desperate for that not to happen again.
Our match tickets included free travel to the ANZ Stadium and a few beer and food tokens to use in the Supporters Village within the Sydney Olympic Park complex. We were expecting the place to be quite rowdy and full of positive vibes but for me it lacked the same excitement I had witnessed in Melbourne. An air of apprehension was clearly evident and whilst it was still the place to be and far better than eating a dodgy wombat burger outside the ground you could have cut the tension with a knife. Fiona and I could both have done with a couple more beers to ease our own nerves before heading off to watch the biggest match of our lives.
It took us ages to find our seats as by my reckoning we were about 200’ above pitch level and only had the really-really poor supporters in the one remaining row behind us, but the view was great. I was seated next to a fairly odd character – 50-ish, short and stocky, bald, but with his whole head painted white with the red cross of St George emblazoned onto his face – he looked a bit like a golf ball. It turned out he was a Wigan Rugby League fan who’d switched codes for a month. I welcomed him with open arms and he reciprocated by fishing out a water bottle from his rucksack and offered it to me. I have no idea what the bottle contained but I was dancing on air a minute later!
A stadium record of 83,702 people bellowed out or respected the Aussie anthem with true rugby values, and then with nervous sweat pouring from my hands the game kicked off. Was this night to be history? The monkey off my back? Nobody knew at that precise moment, then the little genius Genia dropped the ball. 60 seconds later Corbisiero roly-poly’d his way over the line. The sea of red went berserk and from that point on the result never seemed in doubt, especially with 1/2p belting over penalty after penalty, although during my wait for the loo from the start of half time until 6 minutes into the 2nd half the Wallabies, to their credit, managed to reduce the deficit to 3 points. The crescendo of noise rose steadily as tries by Sexton, North and Roberts put the final nails into the Wallabies coffin and secure a first series win since 1997 and by a record winning score. It was an absolutely amazing experience – the ANZ exploded as Romain Poite signalled the end of the match, and the rest of the night is now a distant blur. Thank God I had my camera and iPad running for large chunks of such an historic match and I can now proudly wear my own winning shirt, which I certainly did in Cairns for the final week of our holiday.
So, on reflection, did we enjoy our limited part of the tour? You bet we did! Sure, it was expensive and the credit card companies will enjoy making money out of us for months to come, but the memories that will last forever are priceless. To the Lions team – absolutely awesome, and it was a privilege to be there to witness your historic success. To the travelling fans – you were brilliant and we can look each other in the eye and say “we were there”, and are now lifelong friends. To Australia – thank you for such wonderful experiences, but no sooner had we arrived home than the temptation to visit New Zealand in 2017 was already looming large although we know the odds of winning will be stacked against us. The one guaranteed certainty is that the sea of red will descend in their thousands to the Land of the Long White Cloud once again and God-willing we hope to be part of it.
Many people have said that Lions tours are irrelevant, dying and a relic of the amateur age.
Well I disagree, and I commend them to you all!
WaspieKev
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A fantastic read, written by a rugby fan.
Yes of course you did
Roger
