Rugby World Cup Final

Well, it didn’t disappoint. No doubt the UK press is saturated with photos and reports from Australia, so we’ll keep this fairly short and just from our perspective. If you want to read a match report, you can find it here, on the BBC website.

Friday: As promised, Emily sang ‘swing low, sweet chariot’ over the intercom at 4.30pm. It got the reaction you’d expect.

Saturday: The bar we wanted to watch the game in (the ‘official’ pommie bar) was packed and had queues going round the corner 4 hours before kick off, so we went to another bar nearby, called Pontoon. It was roughly a 50/50 split between Aussies and Poms, and as you can imagine the singing was loud and proud right up to kick off. However as the game wore on the supporters got less and less interested in scoring points off each other, and attention switched 100% to the game. Both sets of supporters were chewing their nails, you could cut the tension with a knife. The atmosphere when Jonny Wilkinson kicked the winning drop goal was beyond description. Several wallaby fans came over and shook our hands after the final whistle. Many of them stayed out to party, much to their credit. There was lots of hugging, mock scrums and general good natured dancing. Went home at 2am (so 10 hours in total), hence….

Sunday was a wash-out. Watched the replay on TV.

Monday: Things are a bit quiet in our offices. We’re both sporting big smiles, but we’re not rubbing it in, as we’re determined to try and be good winners. Phil has taken his England flags down, but left a little one on his PC. Emily’s boss is wearing Phil’s England shirt. Contrary to our previous intentions, the beer was washed out of it. Suffice to say, however, the next Aussie that accuses England of underachieving in sport will get an earful….

Thank you for all your messages in response to ours - we really appreciate them. Thanks also to those of you who tried to text / phone Phil on Saturday, unfortunately his phone ran out of credit due to the number of responses he was sending back so sorry if it all seemed to go quiet.

And this morning Sydney has experienced a partial solar eclipse. Make of that what you will!