CAPTAIN'S DIARY - EDITION 4
Wednesday, 20 August 2008 1:25pm
with Emirates Western Force UK Tour Captain David Pocock
Unbelievable!! That’s the only way to describe the Emirates Stadium experience.
It started with a tour of the venue which was shared by the whole squad last Wednesday, then to cap it off yours truly was invited to watch Arsenal’s opening Premier League match on Saturday from the comforts of the president’s lounge.
The Stadium tour was a great experience, made even better by our tour guide who was an absolute Arsenal tragic and knew everything about the team and players. He told us he’d been to every Arsenal home game since 1963 and even dressed up as the team’s mascot on game days!
What stood out about the Stadium was that everything was in absolutely pristine condition. The changerooms, the field and the recovery facilities looked like they’d never been used.
We got the full tour of the change room and the facilities but no one was allowed to walk on to the pitch, which looked so perfect it was like a carpet.
All the boys got snap happy, taking heaps of photos in and around the Stadium. Players were showing off their photos but were surprised to see that in Scotty Daruda’s camera there were very few of the Stadium and thousands of himself!
‘Football’ as they call it here is definitely king. The coaching staff and I were invited by our major sponsor Emirates to attend Arsenal’s season opening game.
Perhaps it was just the enormous seafood buffet or the fact that I was standing in a room with a who’s who of British sport, but it was one of the best experiences of my life.
The sellout crowd of 62,000 was keen to get the new season kicked off and showed their appreciation for their team by singing constantly throughout the game. It made for an incredible atmosphere.
To give you some perspective, I took a pic of the view from my seat on the half-way line (pictured). Just sensational.
After a tough opening two weeks, where most players played in three matches, this week has provided a good chance for some more tourist activity.
A lot of the boys took a guided tour of London after our match on Saturday, taking in the Houses of Parliament, The London Eye and the London Tower.
Our next two matches are against Northampton teams and we’ve moved on to Oxford.
While there has been a bit of interest in the rugby over here in the UK, the big talking point is the Great Britain teams’ performance at the Olympics in Beijing. And aren’t they rubbing it in!
Every news report on TV starts with another Great Britain medalist, which is often followed up by a story on how another Aussie missed out on gold.
It’s been torture with the Pom’s leading us in the medal tally. They have almost excluded the other countries and are comparing themselves to the Aussies. If they end up higher than us we will never the end of it!
Oh, and check out the photo of Andrew, our liaison officer in Newcastle. Is this bloke a dead ringer for Lewis Hamilton or what? haha
