Marseille 05

We wake in decent time. Our first game is later today, so we’re having a chilled morning before heading out for some lunch. We go to a fab little bistro in the old quarter of town. I have a stunning piece of tuna tataki. We share an awesome bottle of Provencale rosé. We have a little wander around the Vieux Port district to work out where to watch the Ireland / New Zealand game this evening.

We jump on a bus that claims to take us to the stadium, which is a few kilometres away from the city centre. As we’re waiting for the bus to depart, we see an altercation between some Welsh fans, and some local kids. Within seconds, as many as 20 Gendarmes are on the scene. It looks like arrests are being made. A little heavy handed perhaps, but it’s impressive to see how quickly the police responded to the incident.

The bus is PACKED, and we’re actually pretty delighted to get off to walk the last kilometre to the stadium. The bars along the street are heaving - with Welsh and Argentinian fans, with locals, with England fans. It feels positively multi-cultural. We manage not to lose each other, and we make it through security at the ground pretty quickly. Earlier games in the tournament in Marseille were reported as pretty chaotic, but the security team are polite, engaged and of good cheer.

Inside the stadium, we’re a little (lot) disappointed to find the only boozing option is Asahi lager. French stadiums don’t usually allow any alcohol to be sold, so the availability of ‘an’ option is a compromise. Clearly, the organisers wanted to keep things as simple as possible. We find our seats, and settle in for the game. We’re a little taken aback by the behaviour of some of the Argentinian fans around us. There’s a guy behind us who I think is going to have a coronary, so over-excited does he become. There’s another a few rows in front of us who amuses himself by spitting on Welsh fans as they climb up the stairs. It’s not attractive to see - so much so that we decide to head off at half time, to make sure we get a decent seat / view for the NZ vs Ireland game in the Vieux Port.

We’ve got a couple of hours until the game kicks-off, and it’s just possible that we go a bit hard at the rosé. We befriend some people, swoop into to grab seats from others, and find ourselves standing next to New Zealand rugby royalty - Kevin Mealamu. The game is enthralling - several grades more intense than the Wales/Argentina effort earlier in the day. By half-time, we’re both flagging, so head back to our apartment to watch the second half. By the end of the game, Vicks is fast asleep on the sofa, and I decide it’s probably time to call it a night.Read more