Extremely excited in Exeter, explicit version
What a weekend! I’m so glad I chose the quarterfinals instead of the semis, it’s not my fault that the Black Ferns lost to Canada! 😉 Wind back. A long weekend in Exeter, birthday present for the Reisebegleitung, two quarter final games, Rugby World Cup 2025. Black Ferns vs South Africa on Saturday and France vs Ireland on Sunday.
We left early Friday morning and were treated to a double rainbow, view from our balcony. Lovely!
Surprisingly, travel went smoothly, neither BA nor GWR fucked things up. Exeter is a quaint small town with an old cathedral, a bit of river, some hills, a university, some cafes and restaurants, and a rugby stadium. Cathedral = boring because church bullshit. University = avoid. Rest = fine. Enjoyed breakfast at Artigiano (High St), lovely dinner and breakfast at Crave, great chocolate and sweet stuff at Chococo and Knoops. Good pizza at The Flat, too. Herbies was not bad, but also a bit disappointing, unless you enjoy sitting next to the toilets.
The games itself were great, especially our main event on Saturday. Tight first half that ended in a draw, in the second half the Black Ferns broke the game open and won convincingly. Some great plays against a very physical South African team. We had great seats, very close to the action. One of the advantages of visiting a smaller stadium, I don’t really like the super big “arenas”, you mostly end up watching the game on the video screen unless you spend absurd amounts of money. Conditions were ok, a bit of wind but mostly dry. That changed significantly on the Sunday – fierce winds and rain. Which meant heaps of handling errors and a heavy advantage for the Irish in the first half, as France played “against the wind”. Kicks more or less boomeranged back and Ireland led 13:0 at halftime. France turned it around despite lots of cards, but at the end higher quality prevailed. They had Schnappi on their side, too.
Besides the games themselves I always enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. No security theater bullshit, none of the silly aggressive posturing, so super fancy entertainment “on the side”, just good sport. Take your Halbzeitshow and shove it up your arse.
