Brumbies Venture 2010

Sometime prior to the World Cup, rugby tragic Alan Scandrett and I convinced each other that we should have one season when we saw all the Brumbies matches from the sideline. During the World Cup in 2007 we committed to the venture in 2010. The Canberra Times got wind of the trip and printed an article with a picture at the airport as we took off for the first match in Perth. The attraction of such an article escapes me, it could hardly be to lift sales.

We arrived in Perth to a hot afternoon and after a couple of drinks and a meal meandered to the Force’s new Members Equity ground. Nice to be at a rectangular ground, close to the action rather than an oval ground built for some other game. The preliminaries were a little shy of Melbourne Casino’s flame show but were nonetheless entertaining.
We had seats at the Southern end (space does not allow me to relate the fiasco that occurred with Force management and Ticketmaster in getting reserved seating tickets).

We were close to where Stephen Moore scored the Brumbies second try. Here Stirling is lining up his conversion (successful).

Brumbies won 24 to 15 which was a just result given the former had 3 tries and the Force could only muster penalties. Particularly pleasing as I had picked the margin in the tipping competition.

We tried to catch up with the Brumbies at their hotel after the match but somehow missed them but did get to see all the Essendon AFL team (who were a bit down having lost to some Perth outfit).After a great nights sleep we set of for adventure aboard the Rottnest Express. What a great spot the island is. Everywhere we looked there was magnificent views. We took a hop on hop off bus trip around the island and did force ourselves off for one hop and visited the lighthouse. More great views.

We then relaxed back at the local restaurant at Thompson Bay and had a bit of lunch.
The only disappointment was that in our trip we had not seen a Quokka so at the end of the meal one obligingly decided to hop past –we did not even have to get out of our seats.

The trip back to the mainland was uneventful albeit a little rougher than on the way out which gave Helen pause for thought – thoughtful Kate decided to talk to Helen the rest of the trip to take her mind off her stomach!!
We had planned a romantic meal watching the sun go down over the water which is not something we can experience in the East. Unfortunately being Valentines day weekend everyone had the same idea so we had a rather more noisy meal in a pub and then walked to the sea front to see the sunset.

Beautiful and remarkable how quickly the sun sets.

The following day I took Kate and Alan to the airport (Helen and I stayed an additional day in Perth so I could run a workshop – all those tax deductions you know!). Our timing was perfect as we found the Brumbies training on the waterfront. I suspect we are going to get accused of stalking when we get to SA if we keep leaping out of cars, unexpectedly taking pictures and then roaring away without a g'day!