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Firstly, let me start off by saying this was the most unorganised trip in history, luck favours the completely unprepared apparently.
Exile and myself headed up to Bathurst to watch the Force v Waratahs game. The plan was for me to be a true Force Supporter from Friday morning through to Sunday night. Mission more than accomplished.
As we were approaching Bathurst, we had no idea where the stadium, pub where we needed to pick up the tickets, or the hotel where we were staying, were. So we figured we'd spot an information centre on the way in, which we did. So we pulled in, parked, noticed that we were now right next to the stadium, across the street from the pub with the tickets, and one street down from our hotel, genius.
So we got some breakfast, then headed up to Mt Panorama to pay our respects to Peter Brock (Exile and I are both into cars, albeit different manufacturers), it was so humbling to see how many people had made the trek and written on the wall up on skyline (at the top of the mountain), there was at least 500 metres solid of hand written messages.
After that it was pub time, we went to the Panorama Hotel to pick up the tickets and have a beer. It was also the Hotel where the Waratahs were staying. We copped a few (almost dirty) looks from some of the players as we rocked up in our Force gear.
So we decided to remain low key and headed downstairs, having a quiet beer and watching the world go by. We looked on as Ewen McKenzie struggled getting a bag out of the team bus. There was about a minute of opportunity for us to push him in the baggage area and lock him in. Would have been fun but then we wouldn't have been able to continue drinking our beers.
We were getting the wind up from our producer, Travelling_Gerry, so we made a move down to the stadium, coming to like the idea of us being the only Force supporters there (which just means you get to be even louder). As we headed in and looked around, we noticed a small tent up on the hill with Force flags flying from the top. We were waved over and handed free beers (Thank you Firepower!). We got them down pretty quickly and then were offered more. We of course accepted, however the guy serving the drinks was getting nervous that no one was tucking into the Bundy's. Well, it didn't take us long to fix that (and as a result, there were none left by the end).
Before the game kicked off, we spotted John Mitchell. Not wanting to seem rude, we waited for a good opportunity to go up and chat to him and also get a photo. We did this eventually but on two separate occasions, Exile's camera didn't work...
So we went without the photo but thanks to my brilliant photo editing skills, I put together something even better.
Sage and Exile with Force Coach John Mitchell, you think RugbyWA will accept this for the Fan Foto comp?
The game kicked off and as always, Matt Henjak ran on a 7 second delay when compared to everyone else, putting up a very lazy kick from the breakdown, only for it to be charged down and returned for a Waratahs try. Our frustration with the crazy haired young number 9 only continued as he delivered hospital pass after hospital pass (the worst of which made one of the locks jump for the catch, arms stretched upwards, he was promptly smashed). He did at least score a try.
Exile got in his "They've been doing it all day ref!" call inside the first 5 minutes of play, most of us were shouting at Turinui throughout the afternoon complaining that he ate all the pies (even the cover of the match program made light-hearted reference to Morgan's Pie fetish), plus I got to inform Lachlan Turner of the kicking outside the 22 rule (something along the lines of "See that great big white line there? Yea well, you have to be on THIS side of it").
Cover of the Match program handed out.. Something didn't seem right about it.
I knew I'd slipped seamlessly into being a true Force supporter when Cameron Sheppard crashed over to put us behind by a single point; I was easily one of the loudest cheering. Unfortunately Daruda's kick went wide and that was as close as we got.
Through the afternoon we got chatty with quite a few parents of the players and other fans who rocked up. I'd say we were there for about 2 hours after the game chatting away with them all. Mr and Mrs O'Meara and Mrs Staniforth were great value, wicked senses of humour all of them.
Exile was playing rugby with some of the kids, which left the grownups to chat about the Force's chances to still get an APC final. I was telling them how the Tahs were out as they had to win by 34+. It was about this time that I'd received an SMS from Gerry, telling me that the Reds won with a last minute kick, so I had the sad duty of telling Scott and the rest of the Staniforth's that we missed out.
A big thank you to the O'Meara's, Staniforth's, Hilgindorf's and Hardy's among others for being so friendly to us and even laughing at the odd joke or two. Also a huge thankyou to Firepower for fantastic hospitality (and beer, bundy and little snacky things). I'm sure there would have been pies too if Turinui hadn't gotten there first.
The Firepower sponsered Force tent, one of the highlights of the afternoon.
While we never warranted an 'official' invite, there were several mentions that we should head back to the Panorama hotel for the post-game function, so we chanced it and of course got in with no dramas (with the free beer continuing, although apparently we were the last pair to get on the tab, Exile can confirm that).
We stayed there for a while, although nothing happened of note, no nuddie runs, no taxi handles being ripped off, etc.. So we headed downstairs, had some dinner and more to drink. We tried to catch up with Chook and RugbyFan through the night but it never eventuated. It'll have to be next time guys.
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