Ireland Rugby : Romania Rugby

The Wembley Stadium should probably be a household name for most soccer fans. It is probably one of the most famous stadiums in the world - which is quite remarkable, as it is only used for a few games a year. In addition to international matches, only cup finals and play-offs take place in the stadium.

Thus, of course, one was pleased at the Rugby World Cup tickets in this stadium to have grabbed. That a participating team also came (almost) from the island was of course doubly lucky. In the morning of the game, we wandered through Regents Park, where we could watch softball and soccer as well as various junior rugby matches. This was quite informative, because we were due to the slower pace and the good explanations of the referee again a few rules smarter ;-)

In the connection went by Railway direction Wembley, where you already met numerous Irish (or Ireland fans) in green dresses or headgear to the full-body leprechaun costume. At the stadium itself one looked quasi on a green mass which moved from the station to the stadium. In front of the fan zone, a queue several hundred meters long jammed through the alley to the subway station. One almost did not believe that these people would find all in the stadium place.

After a visit to the fan zone, where one still looked at the beginning of the half-time of Scotland - USA with a Heineken, one made his way to the stadium. The sight there was truly spectacular. From the third tier, you could watch well as the stadium filled more and more and in the end reached the (until now) world record audience of just over 89,000 fans.

Although you can close the roof and it is thus virtually an "arena" to "hall" it still has the flair of a real stadium. The acoustics are fabulous and a wave with 89,000 people is not seen every day.

The anthem was sung loudly by the nearly 88,000 Irish fans and every successful action was celebrated frenetically. And there were enough of them, because the Irish were the game-dominating team. In the first quarter of an hour, Romania could still keep up, but after that Ireland was hardly to stop. With 18:3 at half time, Romania could still pull out of the affair.

In the second half, Romania then ran out of steam and Ireland scored partly very worth seeing to a sovereign victory. For some probably too souerän, because many spectators left the stadium already 10 minutes before the end of the game ...

... with the masses afterwards to the public transport but somewhat understandable. We made ourselves but simply to the most distant station. That proved to be a good plan, because so one went larger queues from the way and found equal in the first incoming subway place.