I haven't seen a rugby game live for such a long time - I think the last time was when I went with my Dad to see Harlequins play at Twickenham (Allianz Stadium) in their Christmas Big Game several years ago. That might have been one of the last things I did with Dad while he still had his mental faculties - which gives you some idea of how long ago it was. I haven't even seen much rugby on telly recently - in the US, it now airs on some obscure streaming service that I'm not going to pay for. Anyway, it was good to go see a game - again the Harlequins (I guess they are my de facto team now), but my first time going to their regular home stadium of The Stoop. As you will tell from the photos, it is extremely close to the big stadium! Note also I'm not going to win any awards for sports photography. And my viewpoint was very surreal - right behind the goalposts at one end. This is the polar opposite of how you see rugby matches on telly, so it takes a bit of getting used to. At times I struggled with perspective, and you also can't see action at the other end too well. But I kind of liked being sat with what seemed to be a load of regulars. Though it will be interesting to compare the atmosphere here to when I go and see Palace - the few half-hearted attempts at chants and singing among the upper middle-class rugby crowd was rather pitiable. While in the vicinity, I also took the opportunity to walk some of the Thames path - on sections I've definitely done before on previous walks.
