It was that time again when two rivals on the pitch met to slug it out, whatever the weather, on a great pitch in a magnificent stadium where our national rugby team calls home, yes Twickers!!
Being NAVY, Ive been dismayed at the results the last few years when ARMY have smashed us to pieces both at Kneller Hall (Royal Military School of Music next to Twickenham Stadium) in the vets game and in the main event. Last year the red army blasted us out of the water with a 50-7 points haul. It took a lot of beer to get over that one!!
We haven't won since 2001 with a 31-20 win and that was a blip in whats been a red decade until finally on Saturday 1st May 2010 in front of a 56000 crowd, NAVY stepped up to the plate.
But we will get to that in a minute. The first matches of the day were at Kneller, I was late, had a great big coat with me as the MET Office stated it would pour down from about 1400hrs. I missed the kick off at 1030, where both the ladies and the vets played alongside each other. I dumped my change into the SSAFA collection bucket and got myself a little sticker and then bumped into a few faces I had not seen in a while and the beer started flowing. I missed some of the match due to drinking, buying my drink and waiting in the long queue to the plastic bogs. Maybe just maybe, I should have joined the no necked bootneck (Royal Marine) who whilst watching the vets match at the sideline, without even looking around got his oldboy out and peed on the grass. I looked around and there only seemed to be one female that was upset at the sight and gave him a verbal bollocking. The rest of the crowd both male and female either laughed and pointed or shook their heads. Me, I stepped back so not to get splash back from him. Cheers mate!!!
ARMY won both games and it was time to eat. I didn't fancy the burgers on sale so left with my chums and entered the stadium grounds. There were some great costumes being worn from superheroes, cross dressers to fat sumo wrestlers and what seemed to be a sea of RED go army tops. I thought about purchasing a NAVY rugger top to try and even up this sea of RED but at 40notes, I thought I could spend that better on lining my stomach with a bit of scran before spending the rest in one of the beer tents.
It was 1415hrs, 45minutes til kick off so I went and found my seat, gate A, west side middle tier. The top tier wasn't open and not being used but the rest of the stadium was full. The game started okay but at half time it was 15-3 ARMY and I thought here we go again. Come on Lads we got to make up for last year.
Then the first streaker, he had just pants on and was running along the top tier to great cheers when he bared his cheeks. I found myself watching and cheering as he escaped the orange coated marshalls who he outwitted a few times. This then started the volume of people running up on the tiers and then invading the pitch. I don't advocate this juvenile behaviour but when ZORRO comes onto the pitch, I was in stitches. Right into the centre of the pitch and down on one knee he went, with a trio of marshalls coming towards him but it was his cape that was his downfall. As they approached he did evade them to a great cheer but one of them later grabbed him by the cape and he was done for to which the whole crowd booed.
Back to the game we were losing ground to ARMY 22-6 and all around me the RED supporters had given me abuse.
But with a few penalty kicks and then our first try, I had a good feeling that the BABCOCK trophy might be coming back to where it belonged as it was now 22-19 ARMY. Then with only minutes to go Gareth EVANS - made a cracking try making the score 22-24 NAVY. Come On get in there. But it took forever, the ref couldn't see the try and we had to wait to review the footage on the big screen and for the judgement to be made. I could see it was down, everyone around me could see it was down. Finally TRY was called, the ref blew and the BLUE shirts cheered.
ARMY were all over the ball and I watched the clock count down, I even counted from the 10 second mark as if I were sending a rocket into space.
The ball went out, the ref blew his whistle and the eggchasers of the NAVY were victors at last. Game over 22-24 NAVY.
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