Good morning, Valantines day and our anniversary, 11 years, who would have believed that after our track records!!!!! Anyway leisurely breakfast, though Christine did give me a card but unfortunately I didn’t respond, however, I did mention this fact yesterday, explaining I had decided to buy here in Italy though I didn’t find an outlet that sold cards, oops!!!!!
After breakfast we collected our match tickets but went back to the room
A few England Fans Enjoying a few beers in Piazza del Popolo
to catch up on a few things, including our log.
Work completed we jumped into a taxi and went to the Piazza del Popolo
The Peroni Beer “tent”
where many Rugby fans stop for drinks, so did we. After a while and a few beers we started the walk to the Olympic Stadium, built for the Olympic Games in 1960. Tom Tom suggested this would take around 20 minutes, he/she was wrong, the walk went on for ever but arrived outside a nice looking restaurant in front of the stadium complex around 1 1/2 hrs before kick off so went in for drink and some assorted Bruschetta, very nice but had to get on so having eaten and drunk, paid the bill and we left. At this point we had about 40 minutes to kick off, sufficient time to get to our seats collecting a beer on the way.
The logistics, common sense and organisation doesn’t fit comfortably here in Italy; we arrived at our seats just as George Ford kicked off, and
George Ford Scores the Opening Try for England
this was without any beers.
The game was a game of two halves as they say; the first half England did not play well but the Italians did and at half time the scores were: Italy 9 England 11 but, had Italy not missed two penalties, they would have been in the lead; at this point England was living on borrowed time.
Jonathan Joseph Scores his Second Try for England
The second half was different, Eddie Jones must have put a rocket up the team during the interval as they came out fighting and went on to score tries and dominate the game. The final score Italy 9 England 40 but I must say that had we been playing a good team such as France, Wales or Ireland, things may gave been different. Still with a break next weekend, perhaps, just perhaps, Eddie Jones
Head Coach Eddie Jones talks with Dylan Hartley Captain after the win against Italy. 9 – 40 to England
will work his magic.
Goodness knows what happened here, a bomb???
We walked back from the ground to Piazza del Popolo a different way, shorter we think, and passing a block of flats that had one corner blown out, how was that?? We jumped into a taxi and back to the hotel where we showered
James Haskell and Chris Robshaw applaud the crowed after the match
and changed before setting out for our anniversary dinner.
Just down the road from our hotel was a restaurant specialising in fish, so naturally that’s where we had to go. We had a
Our Anniversary Feast
magnificent mixed fish grill, Lobster, Salmon, Sea Bass, Prawns, Langustines and others washed down with a couple of bottles of Frascati, wonderful, though it would probably been cheaper to fly
Leaving the Olympic Park after a resounding win
to Thailand!!!!! Oh well I made amends for forgetting to buy Christine a card!!!!
Back to the hotel for another good nights sleep before we hit the Vatican tomorrow with Trevor and his new family.