Match 26 -- Argentina v. England

Friday, 27 October 2023

My 26th match, and the 47th of the tournament, was the Argentina v. England bronze-medal match in Paris.

I saw some good reviews of Maison Burger just south of the stadium so I headed there before the match. They weren't open. 🙁 I'll have to figure out the right way to update Google Maps. I can't just update the hours because they didn't have hours posted on the door. But I don't want to give them either one or five stars and write a review consisting of "They weren't open". I don't see a way to tag the entry for attention. I'll keep trying.

So I walked a block back north to a place I had seen on the way to Maison Burger -- Wilson's Grill. I'm glad I did. I had a chicken tandoori sandwich. Kinda like a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. A hoagie-like roll, but French, filled with tandoori chicken and cheese and crudités. It was really good.

The chicken tandoori sandwich at Wilson's grill

When I set down my stack of about 44 cups while placing my order, the cook asked me where I got them. I told him they were from the rugby matches and that I was taking them in for a refund. I asked him if he wanted one, and his eyes lit up. I gave him one and he was very thankful. 

I had made plans to meet up with Justin and his family near the stadium. We were aiming for "one of the bars near the KFC on the east side". I got to the KFC and texted Justin asking where they had ended up. A few minutes later, he came around the corner to find me. It turns out they were only about 25 meters from where I had been huddling under the KFC entrance's awning. They had an outside table under a tent, and I joined them.

Left to right: Ashley (Justin's brother), Justin (Justin), Lisa (Justin's wife), Hywel (Catherine's partner), Catherine (Justin's niece), Ann (Ashley's wife), Doug (me)

(No, I didn't remember all their names. Between how loud it was, and my less-than-youthful hearing, and the fact that they all had New Zealand and/or Welsh accents, I could only remember Justin and Lisa by the time I got home. I had to ask Justin about their names as I was writing this up.) 

We compared notes about returning cups for refunds -- Justin has become something of an expert -- and pooled all of our cups. Apparently they are still enforcing the ten-per-person rule, but we heard that some of the beer stands outside the stadium were taking them. Hywel and I each took ten and headed to the nearest beer stand. They said they weren't refunding them until after the match. So we went to the next beer stand. They guy there was a little bit more understanding. He wouldn't cash them in, but he'd give us a beer (a ten-euro value) for each stack of ten cups. We took him up on the offer. Hywel got a "free" beer out of the deal, and I took mine to the table for whomever wanted it. It did not go to waste.

It was then time to head into the stadium. Justin volunteered me to be the mule. We put all the remaining cups -- 40-ish -- in his backpack and I took it in. Well, I tried to. At the security checkpoint just after scanning my ticket the guy doing the frisking checked the backpack. Our language skills didn't align, but he said I could only take in five cups and I'd have to dump the rest in a nearby trash or recycling bin. I protested (lightly) and asked when that policy changed. He took me a few feet away to a supervisor-seeming guy. I thought maybe he was taking me to him for better English, but that was not the case. The supervisor also said "only five". I protested again (still lightly, because I figured they could get tired of me and kick me out, and because my ticket had already been scanned, I probably couldn't get back in) but we couldn't see eye to eye. I said "Five per person? So I can give five each to these other people in the line." And I started giving five each to people. The first person took them and smiled. The second person opened his jacket and showed me that he already had five. As I was giving five cups to the third person, the security supervisor dude said "give me that" and reached for the backpack. He took out all but five and held them. He gave me the backpack with five cups remaining in it and said "You can go in now". Yeah, I'm now 99% certain it wasn't a policy. It was just a way for the security dudes to get some free money.

After I got inside I met up with Justin (he and his group had to go in via a different gate) and explained the situation, apologized, and gave him his backpack. The first beer stand I tried to turn the remaining five cups in to said they weren't taking them until after 10:30 p.m. Justin said some of the ones on the highest concourse were more flexible, so I went up there. Yep, they took them.

After all that, I found my seat. It was a good one. The only negative was that it was the farthest seat in along that row, so I had to slide past about 20 people to get to it.

The view from my seat

Pre-game selfie

The national anthems (and yes, I sang "My Country 'tis of Thee" during "God Save the King")

It's hard to tell from this distance, but Argentina (in blue) are wearing their "beauty pageant sash" uniforms today

Halftime selfie

England beat Argentina handily back in the first round of pool play, and most people expected a similar result this time. England got out to an early lead and were up 13-0 by the thirteenth minute. Argentina closed it to within six points by halftime, 16-10.

There was a break part way through the first half when Argentina's flanker, Marcos Kremer, had to be attended to for some blood coming from a cut above his ear. While the medics got him cleaned up and bandaged, the public address folks played some sporting anthems to keep the crowd excited. The first one -- "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Just a snippet, but enough to get to the "You've got blood on your face" line. I hope it was intentional. 🙂

Argentina came out strong in the second half, even taking the lead, 17-16, after an Santiago Carreras try in the 42nd minute. England roared back just one minute later when hooker Theo Dan charged down a kick and scooped it up and ran it in for a try. A penalty kick for Argentina a few minutes later got them back to within three points, at 23-20. Argentina had several promising opportunities through the rest of the match, but England held firm, tacking on a penalty kick in the 65th minute to get to what would become the final score, 26-23. All in all, another fantastic match. 

The Argentina fans definitely outnumbered the English supporters. But the English fans persisted on singing the one song they know.

🎵 Swing low, sweet chariot

Coming for to carry me home

Swing low, sweet chariot

Coming for to carry me home 🎵

I just wish they knew more than that one verse. 

After the match I picked up five more cups and turned them in. Then I found one more while I was looking to meet up with Justin's group near the player tunnel to see about getting autographs or "souvenirs". (I'm not sure that I'd want to take a dirty sock home in a carry-on bag.) I didn't end up finding them, so I headed out, looking for a cup return booth on the way. I never did find one, but as I was deciding to give up I saw a kid, about ten or twelve years old, with six or eight cups walking with his dad. So I snatched all of his cups to make it more worthwhile for me to find a refund booth. So I added my cup to his stack and wished him luck.

...doug