The first game of a new season always has a special feel about it. There’s the calls and texts the week before, “Are you going?”, “Meet up for a bite to eat before hand?”, “Any spare tickets?”, and you know that your boring and non existent social life of the last eight weeks is gone for the next ten months to be replaced by thrills, spills, hope and disappointment, strange company and even stranger conversations. Yep, Friday nights at Ravers are back!
What a busy old Friday it was too. First up was my meeting with the babes! Namely Day and Downey of our Women’s World Cup blog fame. A quick meeting in the afternoon to discuss arrangements for next weeks finals – how quickly that crept up. Eliza’s off with the team on Monday to set up camp and Lauren follows on Friday to set up the cheerleader section for Ireland’s opening game against England. Tension’s rising and Eliza’s getting nervous so the blog should be a good read next week as the clock ticks down to that all important first match.
Once the girls had got all their gossip out of the way we discussed our plans, handed over some spare tickets for the Ulster game to Eliza and off I trotted for my next appointment at AM:PM for a bite to eat and a catch up with some Rugby chums.
This is what it’s all about, good food, good company and a fair bit of reminiscing about past trips. We checked our calenders for future trips and before too long it was time to head to the ground to check out the new improvements at Ravers. Don’t know if it was the quality of the accompanying wines with our meal our or just a hard life that had a certain Liverpool lass getting a crowbar from her handbag to try and dislodge a fifty pence piece glued to the pavement by some wag, but when she started rummaging around for an accompanying hammer we thought it was time to move on!
At first glance the food area is great, a nice big area for meeting and greeting with plenty of space to spread out. Didn’t sample anything on fare but the food seemed to be going down well. Just hope they’ve plans in store for some sort of cover for those wet and windy Ravers nights but it’s a good start. Most of the chat was on the choice of booze, or lack of it to be more correct. Plenty of grumbles about the absence of Guinness and I’m not a big fan of Heineken but they seemed to be going down OK – well you have to make an effort, it is all for the good of the team!
Popped round to the URSC tent to sign up but didn’t actually get to it as it was too crowded with Chris Henry and Paddy Wallace doing a turn behind the counter. Decided to have a quick chat with Chairman Kimble and General Prom and they’re hoping for a good year with plenty planned to keep the supporters involved.
As I said earlier the food area is great and we nearly lingered too long making our way to the Prom just in time for kick off. Changes here as well with new barricades, free ways and yellow lines dictating where we could stand and where we couldn’t. Again a good idea for getting around the Prom and it was easy to get in and out to the bar and toilets but there were a few grumbles from Hockey Boy and Boys on Tour who had be chastised by Event Sec for lingering too long on the yellow lines! It’ll be interesting to see how things work out when it gets a bit more crowded but it wasn’t long before our attention drifted to the game and chat about our summer exploits!
The first half went past pretty fast and our new signings appeared to be doing well against a strong Bath side with Wannenburg being the stand out player. All in all it was a good enough showing but there were a few concerns with our tackling, and of course the injuries to Marshall and McAllister. Hopefully nothing too much to worry about but I must admit that throughout the game attention did turn from time to time to a shapely pair of silky smooth legs in front of me. Unfortunately said legs didn’t belong to a stunning blond, or brunette for that matter, but to a grey haired twin of the Boys on Tour variety. Sunny days have their benefits but they also have their downsides!
We did have something easier on the eye when we were joined by Eliza and her friends after the match and we all agreed that Dan Tuohy is a good looking lad, but by that stage the pints of Heineken were slipping down nicely and I began to wonder why it wasn’t one of my favourites.
When I woke up the following morning with a my first hangover for about five years and saw the picture of me and Lewis Moody I remembered why!
Pre-match fun at AM:PM
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Even more pre-match fun!
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Give me that 50p
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Boys on Tour. Glad to be back!
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Kiss me you handsome bastard!
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Another Murphys please!
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Glad to be out!
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Event Sec ready for a foot on yellow line incident!
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Too much sun!
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The sooner the cold nights come and this sort of exhibitionism stops the better!
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Rory wishes Eliza all the best for the World Cup.
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Don't know who's prettier! Dan or Eliza?
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Rory's just having such a good time!
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Eliza's night takes a turn for the worse!
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Things just aren't getting any better!
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At least the Silver fox is having a good time!
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Eliza's night takes a turn for the better!
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Eliza's mates hide in the corner.
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But we found them!
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Andi with an i get's ready for home.
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Lewis is delighted to meet the Ed!
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