[First filed: January 31, 2009 @ 10:42]
Things were mildly chaotic at Canberra Stadium for the Brumbies’ first game of the year. Almost as if they hadn’t been expecting anyone.
Little things like the toilet gates had been unlocked, but not opened.
When I took my fresh season pass down to find my seats for the year I found them occupied by a fat, angry, and very rude woman who was making some sort of ancestral claim on the seats on behalf of her fat and angry family. With a plenty of empty seats available it didn’t seem worth fighting over so I retreated, for now, to the general admission seats by the try-line.
Getting a beer was also problematic with just two bars open. In the picture you can see where the line for food and the line for beer intersected.
And despite the Tooheys signage and sponsorship they were selling Boags (no great hardship there unless you’d smuggled in Tooheys to match the usual brew).
But ten minutes after kickoff we were in decent seats with a drink in hand and all was well with the world on a balmy summer’s evening.
The Brumbies have a comprehensive match report up which no doubt you’ll see reproduced as sport reporting through the next week.
Clyde Rathbone’s rousing break suggested he’s still got a bit left to give if he can stay fit, and both Phibbs and Holmes scored tries from halfback to keep the ‘Canes guessing.
It’s dangerous to read too much into a trial game, but a solid trial win is better than a thumping. It might just be a good season for the ponies.