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Hello everyone!!
Hope you are all well!! I am currently in the beautiful city of Adelaide! Before I came, I was warned that I would hate it and I would be extremely bored since I am here for a week!! Well, I don't know what Adelaide they went to but it's certainly not the one I'm at!! Anyway, I'm just going to write a quick blog today about the Sevens tournament and then write a full Adelaide on at the weekend (my last weekend in Australia!!)
So this weekend Adelaide hosted the 6th leg of the international sevens tournament!! Before the tournament, England were in 2nd place only by 5pts behind New Zealand!! It was played at the Adelaide Oval which is normally used for cricket games!! It's a beautiful stadium and has 2 grass hills, one at each end which were nice to sit and have a picnic on!! There were plenty of families around, which helped a good atmostphere!! The best part was the fancy dress!! Every day they had a competition with cash prizes for the best dressed guy/gal/group!! The group that won it on Day 1 dressed up as the chess pieces on a chess board!! Very funny and very impressive as well!!
The ticket I had allowed me to sit anywhere apart from one stand so I moved around quite a bit! Although the best view for the games was at the side of the pitch up in the seats, the best atmostphere was on the grass hills!! It helped to move around as there weren't many places in the shade so need to try and even out the tan!!
Day 1 was all the pool matches which were very fast and physical!! England looked good in their first 2 matches however really struggled in their final match against Argentina and we only won by 2pts!! The nails definitely got a bit shorter in that game!! There was plenty of support for the teams, but especially NZ, Kenya, Samoa, Fiji!! Saw a fair share of England shirts around as well but the other teams out-cheered us easily!! The Kenyan supporters all moved to one section of the stand when their team was playing and they all sang the national anthem and had their drums!! It was brilliant to watch and they were all pretty passionate about their team!!
Day 2 started the knock out stages! Sevens is a bit strange that even if you lose your group matches, you can still play in a final as they have 4 finals, each playing for a different trophy!! It definitely helps keep people interested for longer, as for example, USA only won one of their group games but beat Kenya in the Bowl Final!! Wales wont h plate final and Japan won the Shield Final!
England didn't play well at all on Day 2, and managed to get through to the semi-finals, where we were due to play South Africa!! This in theory should have been a good game but with an England win! Unfortunately we lost, and to make it worse, we didn't even score one point!! Shame to go out so close to the final but nevermind!! it did mean that I could fully enjoy the final which was SA V New Zealand!! Think its safe to give the award for the most passionate fans to New Zealand!! For the final I was sat behind some Kiwis and they were hilarious!! Mind you, they did quieten down when SA looked as though they were gonna get it!! The once NZ came back, they were cheering as though they had never lost any faith!!
One bonus of England going out earlier than the final was that they did their lap of... well not victory!! I managed to get my photo with some of them, including Oliver Lindsay-Hague, John Brake and Dan Norton!! Always said this travelling malarky is difficult!!!!
Overall it was a brilliant weekend with some amazing rugby, admitedly not from England, in a lovely stadium!!
Right I'm off to do the joys of laundry!!
Sending lots of rugby love
xxxx
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