Match 23 -- England v. Fiji

Sunday, 15 October 2023

My 23rd match, and the 43rd match of the tournament, was England v. Fiji in Marseille. This is the third quarterfinal match. Argentina and New Zealand are already through to the semifinals, and the winner of this match will go on to face the winner of the France v. South Africa match of later today.

I walked from the hotel to the stadium, so there were no scooter frustrations. And I knew to avoid the bottleneck near gate 13. I did notice today that they must be aware of the bottleneck, because their is a sign telling you to go that way for gates 15, 14, and 13, but to go a slightly different way (I think it goes down, under, and back up) to get to 12, 11, 10, or 9. But it's a small sign with no context, so the subtlety would have been lost on me yesterday even if I had seen it.

A great seat again. In an mid-upper level, about even with the middle of the try zone. So I had a good view of the entire field. The seat to my left was vacant, and the aisle was to the left of that, so I wasn't squished at all. The only negative was that the sun was in my eyes during the pre-match and for about the first ten minutes of the match.

The crowd outside the stadium

The sunny view from my seat

Sunny selfie

The national anthems

The haka

Halftime selfie. Much less sun

As far as I can tell, Fiji has only beaten England once. Even so, this was expected to be a close match. England got off to a lead, but not a large one. They led at halftime, 21-10. Fiji clawed their way back throughout the second half, and in the 70th minute, Fiji scored and converted a try to get to a 24-24 tie. Two minutes later, England scored a drop goal to go up 27-24. And a penalty goal in the 78th minute made it 30-24. Fiji had one last chance as time ran out. They managed to keep the ball alive for quite a while (although not as long as Ireland did at the end of yesterday's game against New Zealand -- 30+ phases at the end of the match!) but couldn't get it across the try line. England prevailed, 30-24. But it was a great match, and a fantastic final fifteen minutes!

England advances to the semifinals to play the winner of the France v. South Africa match. And Fiji goes home.

I stopped for pizza on the way home at Pizza La Marseillaise Ganay. A little tiny place, but great pizza.

Tartiflette pizza

Room for about one customer inside the door. Everyone else waits outside

(Oh, Fiji missed three penalty kicks throughout the match. That would have been enough to win.)

...doug