Last night featured my first visit to the now redeveloped Lang Park (or Sandcorp Stadium as some [quite right] detractors have been naming it). Pretty nice venue, shithouse to get to, even worse game of football. But again, more later.
The night started off at Adrenalin Sports Bar (what a shocker of a place) when we decided to start of by watching the Wallabies get mauled by the All Blacks in the second Bledisloe Cup test match.
(The Zire71 doesn't handle near darkness too well I'm afraid)
For the first time in god knows how long, Australia started the game with the same backline two tests in a row. I was actually pretty impressed with the desire they seemed to be showing early on, looking much more committed and intense that I've seen this team in a while. Then the Gregan effect began to take hold...... Australia's attack looked disorganised and ill-direct for most of the game. I'm pretty sure most of this comes down to Australia seemingly playing two fly-halfs instead of one and a lone centre. Most times it was almost impossible to tell whether Larkham or Flatley was playing in that position. Then we get to the performance of Georgie-boy himself...... I know he's played well in the past, and I know everyone loves to reference "that tackle" (Tellingly an incident that occurred in something like his fourth test match of a what - 80 test career?), but Gregan's been struggling for a while now. Ever since he's gotten the big C next to his name, Georgie-boy seems to enjoy far more telling the Referee what he should be doing rather that playing the game himself. No more obvious than in the conceding of the All Black's second try last night. Rather than pick the ball up at his feet, Georgie decided to turn around and scream at the ref for a penalty. A Kiwi backrower - who couldn't believe his luck then simply bent over and picked the ball up from right under Georgie-boy's nose. One pass and one kick later, poor bloody Elton Flatley was left trying in vain to outpace a flying All Black winger who swooped in for the second Kiwi try.
(The big screen)
Australia wasn't really in the game after that. The only thing which really kept us within shooting distance was Carlos Spencers seeming inability to put the ball between the posts (missing three shots at goal is almost a cardinal sin in modern rugby these days. Australia desperately needs a new half-back to provide some kind of spark to the team. Under the current rubgy calendar however, the only chance of finding one with any kind of match fitness has to rely on Bob Dwyer's old method of plucking unknowns from second grade in the Sydney comp. This years world cup is going to be ugly.
Having stuck around to try and watch the end of the match, we then decided to catch a cab up to Lang Park to make the start of the game. Here's where we stuck another problem with getting to the place. In case you're wondering how the State Government managed to claim to bring the reconstruction of the place in under budget despite all the delays and stuff-ups they had - the answer is simple. They didn't bother building most of the transport infrastructure that was a part of the original plans for the place. Our cab managed to crawl its way up George Street to just past the Roma Street station when traffic decided to grind to a halt. Road works/ closed streets - you name it it was happening. We faced to choice of sitting in the traffic for 20+ minutes or jumping out there and running the rest of the way to get to the start of game. Based on the game we ended up seeing, I almost wish we'd stayed in the cab....
Suprisingly, we managed to make it to Lang Park in time, and even found the rest of our group we were suppose to be meeting with, including the one with the tickets.
("This is for you... This is for you...")
We made our way into the ground, with little idea as to where we were meant to be sitting, but with the feverent desire to move as quickly as we can to better seats anyway. On my first sight, I thought there might even be a decent crowd in attendance.
A second look at the place made me realize that there wasn't...
Ground announcers claimed a crowd of around 15,000, but it looked closer to 12,00 in my mind.
Anyhow, the game itself was pretty forgettable. The Bronco's showed once again that they lack any real leadership from the halves on the field.
As a half-back Shaun Berrigan makes a great hooker, and Casey Macguire is still to impress me in the 5/8 role. It was telling that the Tigers were well-directed by a 17 year old playing his second career game at halfback, and looked alot more accomplished that anything the Bronco's could muster. Devere had a shocker at fullback under the high ball, making me wonder if he's going to be in for the same treatment poor Nick Parfitt suffered for fewer mistakes. Hoping that Lockyer is going to remain injury-free is not the solution for a problem the Bronco's have been suffering for the past couple of seasons.
(Swannie wasn't smiling like that by the end of the night....)
(Simon, Justin and Rob enjoy the best part of the night - the beer)
(A study of concentration - or was that disbelief Ian?)
(JT and Jonathan make a surprise appearance)
Lang Park is overall a pretty nice stadium to watch the game from. I didn't notice much in the way of sand on the pitch that night - although that was mostly due to the rain we'd had all day. The surface still looked bloody horrible and patchy though. If they're able to relay a turf surface at the likes of Old Trafford and have it ready to play within a two-week period, then it's a disgrace that they haven't been able to sort out the Lang Park surface surface in a longer period of time. That's what you get from cutting corners and doing things on the cheap.
(Lang Park - much like the Bronco's 2003 Premiership - empty promise)
Probably the best thing about the move to Lang Park as opposed to QEII is the presence of so many drinking establishments within easy walking distance for post match celebrations/commiserations. We ended up at The Caxton - which seems to have done itself up reasonably for a few beers. Not as horribly overpriced as the Lang Park beers, it made a pretty reasonable end to what had been two horrible football matches to endure.
Following this, I decided to avail myself of public transport to get to a friend's place at Auchenflower. Making my way down to Milton railway station, I figured that it wouldn't be too long until a train arrived to speed me on my way. Failing that, I could at least find a timetable which which tell me when the next train would be there. Not suprisingly there was no sign of a timetable whatsoever. I'm sure there was some kind of sign at the station office , but considering it was on another platform and I had no way of knowing when the next train was due to arrive, I wasn't going to risk it running over to the next platform, only to be stuck there when my train arrived and departed.
So I wait.... and I wait... and I wait.... Keep in mind that I got to the station at about 10:25pm. Only an hour or so after the game had finished, and there was still a decent crowd of people waiting to catch a train in both directions. !0:30pm comes and goes with no sign of a train. 10:45 comes and goes with no sign of a train. Finally it arrives at 10:49pm, with no announcements over the speakers or anything. See - that's what I like about public transport - it's so easy and convenient to catch..... Should have bloody walked to Auchenflower - it would have been quicker.
So - Saturday night, I drank a fair bit of beer, got to watch the two teams I was supporting loose in pretty appalling fashion, and got to look at the new Lang Park - a nice stadium but impossible to get to and from. I'm glad my tax dollars have been spent responsibly.
Oh well - I guess it's time now to get ready to watch my team Liverpool loose their first match of the Premier League season to Chelski....
