Before the game was rather uneventful, train to London was fine as was the train to Twickenham, and then the stroll to the stadium, which included Mike tripping up twice and almost made this blog title 'Mikes triple trip to Twick', alas he didnt trip a third time.
Once inside, Mike & I found that sitting in the lower tier really gives an amazing view and we will be trying to get tickets to sit down there from now on. We quickly realised that there were far more Saracens fans then Leicester.
A good first half ended with the scoreline Tigers 9 - 16 Saracens. It was a half that belonged to the fly-halves Toby Flood & Owen Farrell who were both kicking well from penalties. Flood was showing signs of weariness after a long season and was poor when tryin to force it into touch. But Sarries had broken through with the only try of the game so far with James Short diving over in the left corner. The ref went to the video ref to make sure his legs hadn't gone into touch, but the replays showed he was clearly in and the try stood.
Two early penalties in the second half kept the sides evenly apart. And then disaster struck for Tigers, Flood missed 2 relatively simple penalty kicks which would have brought them to within 1 point of their rivals. As the old saying goes, third time lucky and so it proved for Flood as he hit a 37 metre kick through the posts, by far the most difficult out of the 3 kicks though. Again, Farrell pulled Saracens back to a more comfortable 7 point lead. Just 2 minutes later and Flood kicks over again to try and pull Leicester back into it, but it seems those 2 missed kicks have ruined their chances of retaining the Championship. With the clock ticking down Flood kicked into touch near the Sarries try line and forced an attacking lineout. With the score tightly hung at 18-22, a try would seal the turnaround for Tigers, Sarries just needed to hold on. The crowd counted out the last 10 seconds of the game, not realising how much was left in this game. As Tigers had control of the ball on the pitch the ref allowed the game to continue for a full 8 minutes past full time as Leicester tried and tried again to force the ball over the line. But, Saracens discipline paid off and after thwarting every attack, one that seemed inches from the try line, they were awarded a penalty and the game was over. Well done to Saracens for a triumphant season and thank you for an extremely entertaining game, although their fans might not have any nails left after the end. We stayed to see the trophy being lifted and then headed off back to the trains.
Once we got back to Waterloo and realised there was 2 hours until our train home left, Mike and I decided to go in search of a pub that was hopefully showing the champions league final. We found one and after paying £3.45 for a fairly decent pint of Fosters, grabbed a spot in front of a tv. Now, I have a slight understanding of fashion. But why wear hats indoors? Caps are to help keep the sun out of your eyes and hats with fluffy ear flaps are to keep your head warm, not in a pub that is stuffed with people and more like a sauna. And especially not when you are tall and standing directly in front of the tv!! Although the guy with the ear flap hat was extrememly drunk and by half time he was swaying majorly, would have been very funny to see him fall over like a felled tree. So we watched the first half and then got some eats and jumped on the train home. Another uneventful journey apart from the loud idiots behind us who got off at Petersfield after we had been wondering why anyone would ever go to Petersfield, let alone live there.
I really cannot wait for the world cup to start in septmber now.
Thanks for reading, I'll be back soon.
