Université de la Méditerranée Aix-Marseille II

We’re both a little groggy after last night’s rosé-fest, but push on, being the brave little soldiers that we are. We’re having lunch out by the coast before heading up to the Stadium for the England vs Fiji game.

Lunch is a delight. The restaurant is on a beautiful little cove. The food is incredible. Grilled mussels to share, then Bouille a Baisse for me - the local fish soup/stew delicacy, and a stunning piece of seabass for Vicki. We manage a bottle of rosé between us. We take a bracing walk up the coast for a couple of miles to walk off our lunch, and stop for a couple of sharpeners in the sunshine.

Arriving at the stadium around 75 minutes before kick-off, it feels different to yesterday. There’s certainly more noise, more tension. There are much longer queues for security. As we stop to have our bags searched, things start to worsen. We’re both told we have items that are forbidden (but which we were both allowed to bring into the stadium yesterday, and which are not mentioned on our tickets as being verboten). The guards start to get incredibly aggressive towards both of us. Vicki fears we are about to get dragged away - to where, we don’t really know. Ultimately, we’re able to leave our forbidden items (an empty reusable water bottle and a power bank since you ask) at a left luggage station, and can pick them up after the game. It’s a minor inconvenience in truth, but the way it’s been handled has left both us feeling pissed off, and shaken.

Inside the stadium, the atmosphere is more tense as well. The majority of the crowd are French, and supporting Fiji. There’s an incredibly strong anti-English sentiment which we both realise we find uncomfortable. It’s not the same as the colloquial and bantsy game day experience we’re used to. We’ve sat in the stands surrounded by Kiwis, South Africans, Scots before when they’re playing England, and never felt this same terseness. This feels like real enmity. We’d been planning to find a French bar to watch this evening’s France/South Africa game and to support France, but no - Fuck the French. Vive L’Afrique Du Sud.

The England vs Fiji game is a great, if stressful watch. England appear to be in control at 24-10, before Fiji come flying back to make it 24-24 with 10 minutes to go. The final score of 30-24 in England’s favour feels a fair result. I doubt the performance is keeping any of the other remaining teams awake at night though. Still - a World Cup semi-final when we really didn’t think we’d even make it out of the group stage is a decent result.

After the game, it’s the usual scrum to find transport back to the city centre. We manage to nab a couple of seats on a bus, and we’re soon heading back to our apartment for the 21:00 kick-off. The France game is incredibly tight. Given our newfound Fuck the French mentality, it’s beyond delicious to see them lose their home World Cup at the quarter final stage by a single point.Okumaya devam et