My other family...

I was reminded today that I have another family - My rugby family. As some of you are aware, I am a supporter of London Wasps. Unfortunately, because I live in Birmingham, it's a bit hard to get to home matches (especially as they tend to be on Sundays and I like working Sundays for the double time). However, for the past couple of years, I've been lucky enough to go to Twickenham to see London Wasps play in various finals. The first one I went to was for the Heineken Cup (kind of like the Champions League of rugby union) in 2004. This was also the first time I encountered the Drunken Wasps. The DWs are the unofficial supporter's association and I must say, are a damn site better than anything official. They have organised trips away for European matches, they organise merchandise and various charity benefit dinners/ drinks. The problem with the club is that they don't like the fact that A) They're called "Drunken Wasps" which is too close an affiliation with alcohol and B) The DWs are far gbetter at organising trips, dinners etc than they could ever manage. Oh, and the ironic thing? London Wasps' main sponsors are Magner's Cider, Whyte and Mackay whisky and Abbot Ale (!!).

Anyway, I digress. The point I need to make about the DWs is that they're a thoroughly decent group of people. I love the fact that when we all went to Biarritz last year, England International and World Cup Winner Josh Lewsey's parents went with the DWs and stayed in the same hotel as us. So we were all having brekkie together in the bar of the small family -run hotel. One of the first people I met at the DWs was Steve. I saw that he obviously knew a lot about rugby and the clothing he wore seemed to suggest he had something to do with the club - But I wasn't sure what exactly. Bear in mind this was the first time I met the guy, but he was really friendly and chatty and made me feel completely at ease. Of course, it helped that I had a load of chocolate vodka with me which he was very impressed with ;) Well, turns out that he's the father of one of the players (!). Again, in Biarritz, he was so gentlemanly and gracious. He saw Mum and he went over to her, held her hand and after I introduced them to each other, he looked at Mum in the eye and went "Hello Mummy, how are you?". It was one of them moments that made me feel both happy and proud to be a Wasps fan. Steve went out of his way to be nice to Mum and make her feel welcome when he didn't need to at all.

I got a text message from DS yesterday (friday) lunchtime asking me if I wanted a ticket to today's Powergen Cup Semi Final at the Millennium Stadium. I jumped at the chance and immediately thought of getting to Cardiff. Now, there seems to be a thing where whenever I am about to go and see Wasps play - I'm ill the night before or leading up to it. I was all excited and pumped about going, but when I got home from work last night at 18.30 - I promptly threw up for no reason whatsoever and then felt ill for the majority of the night. I do think that there is something somewhere that obviously thinks that I shouldn't go to watch Wasps play! I think it's also partly nerves because being the superstitious idiot that I am, I tend to think negatively and that I will be the cause of a jinx against the team. I then snap back to reality and tell myself to stop being so negative and to look forward to the match. After all, Cardiff is a lot easier or me to get to than Twickers.

So I make my way over to New St Station to catch the 10.30 train to Cardiff. In great tradition, Central Trains haven't prepared themselves for quadruple the amount of normal passengers for this route and only send a 2 carriage train. Now bear in mind that this is just when it arrives in Birmingham - And this train started at Nottingham with Leicester being one of the stops in between. Then consider how Wasps are playing Leicester in the SF, and they STILL only provide a 2 carriage train?! It's bad enough that I am the *ONLY* Wasps supporter on the platform (and pretty much in sight) and as the platform slowly fills up with Tigers supporters, I'm beginning to wonder if I'll get a seat.. When the train eventually pulls up, we all pack onto the already half-full train. I know immediately that I'm not going to get a seat, so I just stand by the doors by the pull down seat. However, I can't even pull the seat down because the train was absolutely packed. All the alleyways and any bit of space was taken. Passengers for the University (one of the stops) were shocked to see the train so busy. Normally, you'd get about 12 ppl per carriage! At 10.27, the train manager makes an announcement saying that those people with a special ticket to Cardiff are advised to get the 10.28 to Cardiff from the next platform - but only if you have a special ticket for Cardiff. No-one moves as we don't have this "special ticket". Immediately, we get another announcement saying "All passengers for Cardiff, please get the 10.28 from platform 10B." I rush off the train and head to 10B and see how that train is half empty. I jump on board and get a seat - So I'm fine. The train itself was (again) full of Leicester supporters, but I keep myself to myself and the only reason to suspect I'm a Wasps fan was the DW badge I had on my jacket. I then hear one of the Tigers fans who was originally on the train say: "Why are all these people getting on this train? We've had to pay extra to charter this train, it's not fair to let anyone and everyone on this train." On hearing this, I smirk to myself, put my iPod on and close my eyes to get some sleep.

I've always liked Cardiff - Especially since it's been regenerated. It's a gorgeous city and I suspect that I wouldn't be too displeased if I had to live there. The Millennium Stadium is a really impressive structure. if you travel by train, as soon as you step out of Cardiff Central station, it's right in front of you imposing itself on your sight. You can sense right away the pride that the Welsh rightly have of this stadium and you partly wish that such passion existed in England. Wembley is on the outskirts of London (actually, it's not even *in* London, is it?) But there is nothing that really catches or displays such pride like the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. We're lucky enough to see the team bus arrive not long after we get there. I spot Fraser Waters there and a sense of calm and relief comes over me. Fraser has been injured most of last season and only recovered a few weeks ago. I immediately remark on how good it is to see Fraser again, and how you don't realise great he is until he's not there.

As for the match. Well, we won. I dont want to go into too much detail because well, much as I love rugby, I am also aware of how it doesn't have the appeal and excitement of football where it's very basic and easy to follow. All I can say is that the 80mins of watching a rugby match live is the longest 80mins you will ever experience (if your team are leading, that is. Otherwise it'll be the longest if your team is losing). At 60mins, we're leading 15-10 and I know that as long as we don't concede anything more than a converted try for the next 20mins, we'll have won. DS and his father are sitting to my left and Italian Dave is sitting to my right. Italian Dave hasn't brought his glasses so can't quite see the action, he's also fairly new to rugby so doesn't really know what's going on. Oh, and he has some 7 year old next to him shouting and screaming so loud he's also now deaf in one ear.. Anyway, from the 60th minute, there's not a single word uttered from DS, his father or myself - We're all too tense. Leicester are attacking our line but so far, our defence is taking it all in. Italian Dave is to my right saying "oooh! Leicester are gonna score!" and there's a deafening silence to my left. Then, all of a sudden, we have a break.. Oogie has the ball with Voyce to his outside and 2 defenders to beat..
"PASS THE BALL! YOU'RE GONNA GET TACKLED!" We (as in DS, his father, the blokes sitting behind me and I) all shout. The last defender gets his hands on Oogie and we're all thinking "TOLD YOU SO!" Hang on, he's got through the tackle! He's clear!
"RUN OOGIE, RUN!!!" Oogie sprints to the try line and scores under the post.
"YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!" Pandemonium ensues. I'm so happy that I'm jumping about with both arms in the air and I'm hugging everyone around me.
*BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!* As we finally sit down, I joke that after 14mins of silence, not only can we breathe again, we can start talking again ;) Oh, final thing about the match before I move on is how Leicester thought they had scored a try but it had to go to the video ref and on the replays, we were certain it wasn't a try (OK, we're biased) but you certainly couldn't say for certain that it WAS a try. Whilst waiting for the decision, they really played up the tension by playing the sound of a heartbeat pulsating - I quite liked that. Oh, and the Tigers were so certain it was a try that the players all got ready for a restart and their playing lined up a conversion ready for it all - Cheeky buggers!

After the match, I decide that I don't want to stay for the 2nd match and head off home. On my way out of the stadium, I decide to give Scouse Cath a call to see where she was. As it happens, she was having a ciggie outside so I walk over to meet her. I haven't seen Cath in nearly a year so there was a HUGE hug between the two of us. We catch up on stuff and I'm immediately reminded of how much fun I always have with her - We both certainly laugh a heck of a lot. At one pont, Scouse Cath says "Hey look! There's Kinga" and I'm thinking "Kinga?! From Big Brother? What she doing here?!" I look over and realise she means Alex King, a player for Wasps whom is out injured atm. I tell her about it and we both falla bout laughing. She phones Barmy Kev and Olivia (his fiancée) and tells them to come out to meet up with me as I'm about to go home. I haven't seen Olivia in nearly 2 years since the Heineken Cup, but Kev always reminds me of how she really likes me because that was the first time she had ever been to a rugby match and I took time to explain to her all the decisions and rules. That was something she really appreciated and made quite an impression on her, I'm told. So the 4 of us are all chatting and laughing and to complete the group, DS joins us.

So the 5 of us are all chatting and I'm thinking to myself how in the past year, I've missed all of them. I haven't laughed so much in a long time and I'm having such a good time right now. At one point, Cath raises her eyebrows and points at 5 o'clock with her nose. Before I can turn round to see who or what she's pointing at, Olivia has pushed past Barmy Kev, DS and myself and shouted "OH HIYA! DO YOU REMEMBER ME FROM TWICKERS LAST YEAR??!!" It's only Mark Van Gisbergen - One of my honeys in the team (with the most perfect bum I've ever seen on a man). MVG is so surprised that the guy actually backs away from Olivia (a woman of traditional build like myself) a little before looking at me in complete shock whilst trying to find a friendly/familiar face and holding his arm out - Partly to hold her hand, partly to keep her at arm's length. Olivia jumped at seeing him because 2 year's ago, I pointed out how nice his bum was and when we met him afterwards, she got a kiss from him. Last year, in my absence, she got ANOTHER kiss from him. So she was excited to see him and said to him at one point "You gave me a peck on the cheek last year, remember?!" I can't stop laughing and the poor guy is there saying "Yeah.. How are you? You OK?!" Even the steward he's with is laughing along with DS, Barmy Kev, Scouse Cath and myself. We say goodbye to MVG and wish him a speedy recovery and that we hope to see him at Twickers. I nearly get cramp laughing, MVG actually backed away slightly from Olivia.. Never mind how she pushed past everyone and nearly jumped on the guy! Even now, I am still laughing about it.

It was there that I resolved to go to as many matches with these guys as possible. I *always* have great fun with them and the world is a nice place with them in my life. Not just the likes of Scouse Cath, DS, Barmy Kev and Olivia.. But with the DWs in general. They are a decent bunch of people whom I'm very happy to be associated with. Here's to 9th April when we go to Twickers for the final. Scouse Cath has offered to let me stay at hers for the night rather than rushing home like I normally have to, but I don't think I can get anyone to stay with Mum. So I'll just have to make a day trip. One thing is for sure though - I'm not going to miss meeting up with them for anything in the world.

Oh, and one final thing.. I said earlier that I was a superstitious idiot who worries that I may jinx our boys. So how did I know we would win? Well, it was partly when I saw Fraser on the team bus along with Stuart Abbott, it was partly an ovewhelming sense that we would win therefore no nerves. But the main thing? I had my lucky T-shirt on Superstitious? moi?! NEVER! *wink*