Match 7 -- England v. Japan

Sunday, 17 September 2023

My seventh match (and the sixteenth of the tournament) was England v. Japan in Nice.

This was my first time seeing England or Japan, and brings the number of teams I've seen to ten.

It was also my first time repeating a stadium. That was nice. It meant that I didn't have as much anxiety over how to get to the stadium.

I talked to a group of six England supporters on the tram to the stadium. One of them has attended the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, England, and France so far. 

A great seat again. This time I had a seat on the aisle, so that gave me a bit more legroom.

The view from my seat

The anthems

Kickoff

A scrum in my corner

Japan is good enough to beat England, so this promised to be an exciting game. It certainly lived up to it in the first half, with England leading at the break, 13-9. England pulled away in the second half, winning 34-12. It was 27-12 as time reached 80:00 but England scored on the last play to get their fourth try, giving them a bonus point in the pool standings.

England's second try, early in the second half, was the result of a lucky bounce. An awkward pass to England's tighthead prop, Joe Marler, bounced forward off his head and into the hands of Courtney Lawes, who scored a few steps later. It took a few views by the video replay official to ensure that it went off Marler's head, and not his hands. 

I left as soon as the match ended and made my way to the tram stop as quickly as I could, trying to avoid a repeat of the previous day's long wait for the tram. Even so, there was a 30-minute wait to get on a tram. I still made it back to the hotel only 75 minutes after the end of the match.

...doug