Wasps!

What a day!! Yesterday I went to Twickenham to watch the Guinness Premiership Final between Wasps and Leicester. I was meeting up with an old friend, my original rugby buddy, who I only get to see a couple of times a year because of his work travel schedule. I started the first of nine pints of Guinness in the Fox in Twickenham and we meet up with the others that were joining us for the match. Then to the main event! Even walking up to the stadium was incredible. Thousands upon thousands of people, singing and drinking and chatting and really excited about what promised to be a cracking match...

My friend M had organised the tickets and the boy done good – we were on the west stand, about a third up on the 22. Although answer me this, why did the best rugby stadium in the world design the seats for tiny people?! I’ve actually got a bruise on my knee from cramming my long legs into those bloody seats. Anyway, I won’t do a detailed match report – there’s a good one in the Observer today, or go to the Wasps site – but Wasps were superb. Two of my favourite players Rees and Lewsey scored a try a piece and Mark Van Gisbergen slotted over six from six. The players – always top class – played out of their skins for another reason yesterday; big Lol’s last game. Laurence Dallaglio the ultimate rugby warrior was retiring. And when he came off with about 10 minutes to go, he received a standing ovation from Wasps and Leicester fans alike. We wanted to show our appreciation and for a while the action on the pitch stopped to enable us to do just that. He was emotional and so were we.

Wasps won 26 to 16 and when the players gave a lap of honour it felt even more special than usual. The crowd was 82,160 strong and it broke the previous world record of biggest ever crowd at a club rugby match and I really felt proud to be there in my Wasps shirt seeing off my favourite ever player with passion and gratitude for all that he's done for club and country.

We headed over to the Guinness Village but the queues were enough to test the patience of even the Dalai Lama so we headed back to the Fox and sunk even more booze. A trip to Pizza Express to get some much needed carbohydrates and then it was back home. It was my first outing in as long as I can remember without the car and I’m paying for it now with inflamed and very painful knees, but to not have a pint whilst your team win the Premiership is just very, very wrong...

COME ON THE WASPS!