I won't do a match report as it was last week and those that could have watched it have watched it already...but will try to give a ‘feel’ about the games………………

The matches took place at a place called Fletcher's Fields which was about half an hour drive north of Toronto via the Don Valley Parkway / 404, after leaving this road we drove for about 2 miles along a country road bounded by nothing more than farmer's fields. The playing fields consist of 6 rugby pitches and a modern club house /changing rooms. We parked the car (glad we had hired it as it was really out of town!!) next to a nice Canadian man (ex of Essex, who we were later introduced to by Dermot M.) and had a long chat as we were about 2 hours early - we had allowed time in case we got lost as hire car was picked up in city. The car park was about 3 rugby pitches away from the clubhouse and the field the match was played on about one, We then spoke to a couple of England supporters, from Leicester who had lived in Canada for 9 months and were missing the Crumbie stand, After having some liquid refreshment in the clubhouse (Can$4.75 for a pint of lager)

We, along with the Tigers supporters, ventured out for some food, choice was hotdogs, burgers or pizza. The pizza guys were deliberating how they were going to get their pizzas into the too small ovens that had been supplied, we left them to it and had hotdogs.............. We then saw Phil Murphy's parents and had a brief chat.

We found some seats in the stands (metal, we had been warned by the M's that they uncomfortable) as seating was unreserved at Can$35 (or Can$65 including 4 of pints beer in what was supposed to be a designated area - only the area, or any of the stand, wasn't signed!!) If anyone noticed a lot of movement from about 15minutes into the game until just after half time in both games that was why - the stewards were making the crowd swap to go to their proper seats, i.e. if you had a white wristband ($65 - we had $35ones and sat about the 22m line) your seats were between both 10metre lines, everyone else where ever you could sit - There were signs up though to say that no alcoholic beverages were allowed in the stands, so it was either stand behind the stand, or the clubhouse for a beer - a complete contrast to the baseball match that we went to the previous night at the Rogers stadium, although that made the Madstad look cheap for beer (Can$9.50 , approx £4.75 per pint), food also at a huge premium.

We watched the first match sitting amongst a knowledgeable crowd of all nationalities, We saw no publicity for the tournament, and anyone we told we were going to the match hadn't heard/seen any so the crowd was just made up of people that were into rugby anyway - Fletcher's fields is the home to 6 or 7 teams including Irish Canadians, Toronto Scottish and Toronto Saracens (just like home). Between the matches we went into the air conditioned club house as the sweat was literally dripping off of us, had a drink, then went outside for match number 2, we then sat next to the Pumas supporters, nearly where we had been for the first match. There were more Canadian supporters there for this one. Phil Murphy and some more players that had played for Canada were presented with their Canadian caps.

After the matches had finished it took over an hour to get out of car park as the road leading up to it was single file, and some that hadn't arrived early enough for the car park were parked on the main-ish road about half a mile away and were walking along the same road as we were trying to get out. We didn't manage to speak to any of our players that were playing though, by the time we'd got out of the stands they'd gone into the changing rooms.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes