An extra one this week - It was a nice day for all at the Stade Pierre Mauroy

I thought that this week's blog deserved an update. Yesterday was a fantastic Rugby-filled day, and we met like-minded Rugby people from around the world.

We had a quiet morning. Where we are staying, there is a supermarket around the corner from us. It's a unique shop that reminds me of PXs (Post Exchange, tax-free shopping) in America. So there is nothing that we can't get. We treated ourselves to our usual Saturday morning Pain au Chocolat, and I coupled that with a very lovely Sumatran coffee that I bought with me this week.

Having already purchased a 72-hour city pass, we caught the tram service, conveniently situated at the end of our road, into Lille. The city centre was much more lively, with plenty of England and Chilean rugby fans. The first Chileans we greeted poured a shot of Pisco, a high-proof spirit made in Chile by distilling fermented grape juice. That was undoubtedly a 'livener' into the Butts.

We sat for a while in a pastry come bar shop and managed to order some rather sweet wine, which was awful,  via their app. The shop was bustling and was struggling with the number of people around.

Getting out to the Stade Pierre Mauroy couldn't have been easier. The Metro was well-signposted to the final stop. The stadium was just a ten-minute walk. It is a magnificent structure, and while we waited for the gates to open, we partook of some reasonably priced food and drink. The loud music set off the decibel warning on my Apple watch, and as a former noise assessor, I did make moves to move to a quieter area.

In the earlier pool matches of the Rugby World Cup, it had been reported that there were a few problems getting into stadiums. I could see how this happened when we went into Stade Pierre Mauroy. Each person was required to undergo a full body pat down. It is quite a usual thing at Twickenham, but it would lead to significant delays if the French didn't resource the gates with enough staff. Thankfully, that didn't happen yesterday, and we were 'patted' through in no time.

After the sterling work that my wife, Kathy, had done in securing tickets for us last year, we were amazed at the seats we were allocated. Stade Pierre Mauroy is a modern stadium with clear sight lines. We were at the front of the middle tier, almost on the centre line. We were above the player's tunnel. It couldn't be better.

It took England twenty minutes to score the first try, and at halftime, the score was 31-0. It could have been and probably should have been much more, as England did butcher a couple of chances for a try. In the second half, they were much better and ran in a plethora of tries, Henry Arundell scoring five and taking the Man of the Match Award.

So, we shall be out again for the next game on 7th October. I hope you've enjoyed this little extra to this week's blog. Thank you for reading.