Saturday Night Rugby

What a night. I just came back from Telstra Stadium watching the Test Match between Australia and Wales, an outing arranged by the UMNO Club of NSW. Nothing political, merely a liberal student body meant to socialize. It was not my idea in the first place to go and join them to the match this time around, but I was puzzlingly defeated by lust when Keano, the president who happened to be my Prep School prefect back then in MCKK convinced me to come.

So there I was, taking the 15-20 minutes bus ride from my place to Central Station before meeting the rest and embarking on our journey to Telstra Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park via train. The train journey was basically filled with me updating myself with Apis, Bhozai and several other INTEC mates, but the highlight was of course, I bet everyone agreed, the irking but entertaining noises of local rugby fans who were on board as well. Anyway, I was impressed with the public transport system here. The match ticket that we bought already included public transport to the stadium, which means you might be living anywhere in Sydney and you are still able go to the stadium by only means of displaying your match ticket to the bus driver or ticket inspector at the train station. Interesting if you consider the mutual agreement and understanding that need to be reached between the ticket coordinators down to the bus drivers. Not only that, sufficient train coaches were also made ready to cater for the special night, making it very, very convenient for thousands of supporters tired from watching the match to get home in a timely manner.

A little bit about the game. The opening half was a nervous one for the home team; in fact the crowds were just about to settle down on their seats when Wales had their first try. Wales later on took a comfortable 17-0 lead including a second try out of a brilliant steal deep into the Wallabies’ half, which reminded me of the glorious try Mat Rock made against Raffles College of Singapore in 2004 during my MCKK days. The home team managed to find their pace and pick up from there then to close the first half trailing by 5 points behind. It may have been otherwise an opposite, dreadful end story for the massive 40000 spectators, most of which were Australian supporters in the stadium if not for the final-gasp try followed by an impeccable conversion that sealed a 29-23 win for the home team.

In the end, the Wallabies won, and I got to know some new friends. Awesome.

P/s: I noticed amongst the billboards of proud sponsors in the stadium this familiar ad, on the top left of the picture. Yes, Proton. What does it do up there I simply have no idea.