Sunday, 08 October 2023
My 21st match, and the 39th of the tournament, was Tonga v. Romania in Lille.
Both Tonga and Romania were looking for their first win of this tournament. Either way, this was the last game of the 2023 Rugby World Cup for them, but they both wanted to go out on a high note.
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| Great seat, right on the try line |
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| National anthems |
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| The Haka |
Tonga got off to a 21-3 lead, but Romania clawed back to a halftime score of 21-17. Matching tries left it at 28-24 after 60 minutes. These two teams are both fighting hard. But Tonga, with the help of a yellow card against Romania, pulled away in the last part to win 45-24.
I decided to try something different for the trip back to the hotel. Rather than walk to the nearest Metro station and work through the long but orderly queue, I walked three stations downstream to the Pont du Bois station. The walk took about 25 minutes, but I was able to get on the second train that arrived. (The first one was already packed to the gills.) More walking, less queueing. Overall time improvement from yesterday: 40 minutes. And that includes making a stop at a mini-mart for juice and snacks.
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| A Tongan try right in front of me |
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| A nice Romanian lineout |
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| Another Tongan try |
...doug
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