Twickers...

I had a great day with Sam. I was struggling a bit with sciatica so was on crutches as there was a lot of walking to done, and stairs to climb, but Sam was endlessly cheerful and helpful, and, somewhat surprisingly, so were all of the stewards and the other employees at the stadium.

We couldn't get into any of the pubs in Twickenham Town Centre as they were all rammed, so went straight to the stadium and had some drinks in the concourse bars. But there was nowhere to sit, so as soon as we could get to our seats we bought a couple of pints each and took our places in the stands for a good old chinwag. On Sunday Sam said that he'd remember that hour and a half of us drinking and chatting for the rest of his life, and so will I. We talked about rugby, history, politics, French grammar and all sorts of other stuff.

We had a great view, even when, as with the final decisive kick, the action was at the other end. The game itself was a pulsating affair - the Irish were clearly a bit off-colour but that was partly because England were so good, and I think the better side won.

Afterwards, we went into the town centre and had a brilliant Nepalese curry, but the pubs were still far too full so we headed back to Staines where our hotel was and went into a very plain and almost empty pub by the station and enjoyed a couple of hours more nattering about this and that before the long trek (only about a mile tbh, but not easy on crutches!) back to the hotel.

Like I say, it was a fantastic Dad-Son experience. Yes it was expensive, but I knew that before I set out, so I didn't keep count of what we spent, and I don't care. As to whether I'll repeat it, I doubt that - not because of the cost, nor even because of the walking, but simply because I really don't feel comfortable in huge crowds nowadays. The train from Reading to Twickenham was awful, we couldn't even get through the doors of the Twickenham pubs, let alone get served, and there wasn't much leg or bum room in the seats in the stadium, plus people were constantly getting up to go to the bar or the toilets and then coming back so it was a case of up-down-up-down. I expect one day Sam and I will go and watch the Exeter Chiefs as that's on a much smaller scale, and we'll watch internationals in a pub many miles from the venue!

But ignore the negatives - I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Thanks for asking!