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22 November 2014
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 22 2014
What a day to remember today for a very high percentage of the Quinn/Loveridge tour groups who are here in Cardiff. To sit in the stands at Millennium Stadium and watch a New Zealand v Wales rugby match unfold was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most. And even for those of us who have been before it was a super-charged feeling to be back again.
The 70,000 crowd's singing was the best I personally had ever heard. And I first came here 36 years ago!
I wondered whether it might have been because the sound of all the vocalists was amplified because the roof was closed over, or, was it because microphones dangling in front of the Male Voice Choir and Army band helped to raise the volumn's lever? Or was it the shear size of the 100-strong male voice choir who just made it all SEEM better that ever. I loved it all and found myself singing along to the bits that are so familiar. The only black mark on the local organisation came when the male voice stadium announcer said we were 'about to be entertained by 'several May-Owrry' songs by the choir.
The game itself I will review elsewhere on this page. Suffice to say it was a wonderful day. And the 34-16 result helped too (from a Kiwi point of view at least!!
Our group had walked down together from the Hilton Hotel and there was very little crowding along the short route. The hotel was only about 500 metres from the ticket entrance and our people wanted to go early, so we were in place by 3.30pm for the 5.30 kickoff. Never mind, that gave us plenty of time to take in all of the wonder of a Welsh rugby experience.
{FOOTNOTE} The date for this game; November 22 was a reminder that on the same calendar day 51 years ago, in 1963, the Cardiff rugby crowd had gathered to watch Wilson Whineray's All Blacks team play the Cardiff club team. NZ won 6-5. On that occasion the population had watched quietly. Everyone was subdued because the night before news had come through that in Dallas, Texas, the popular American President John F. Kennedy had been shot dead in Dallas Texas. The two rugby teams on that far off day had stood in silence at halfway in his honour.
Just because they had wanted to.
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The All Blacks and Scotland end at 0-0 - the most recent occasion (up till 2014) that the ABs have had this 'nil/nil' score in a game.
SAXTON, CHARLIE
Otago, South Canterbury, Southland, Canterbury and New Zealand
3 internationals for New Zealand 1938
A successful All Black manager, coach and theoriser of the game, who wrote a very useful coaching manual, and a fine halfback whose career was cut short by World War II.
Charlie Saxton’s greater claim to fame was as captain of one of the most respected New Zealand rugby sides. Post-war blues were lifted throughout the British Isles and Europe by the sparkling play of the ‘Kiwis’ – a side chosen from New Zealand servicemen.
Captain of the side, and then 32, Saxton lost nothing by comparison with the talented young men joining him, 16 of them going on to become All Blacks. The side won 32 of its 38 matches in a five-month tour, the Saxton dive pass setting off his backs on many a thrilling movement.
He was an outstanding All Blacks manager in 1967 and a life member of the NZRFU.
Which prominent New Zealand rugby personality admits having become slightly besotted by the British Theatre Production 'Les Miserables?'
What do you think?
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