Go the Wallabies!

Through the good fortune (and also impeccable timing) of our friends Bob and Mardell, we were fortunate enough to score tickets to the first match of the British and Irish Lions vs Australia Wallabies test series. The Lions only tour Australia every 12 years so the prospect of attending the game was very exciting.

Excited!

Tickets to the match sold out very quickly, and were quite hard to come by. Bob and Mardell happened to be on the Ticketek website looking for tickets to another match, and lo and behold, there were 4 tickets available! A flurry of texts ensued, and we were set.

Brisbane was transformed into a sea of red for match day. I was surprised by the sheer numbers of Lions fans in the city. We chose to support our adopted home country and got ourselves decked out in green and gold for the occasion. We were in the minority. It was weird. Expecially considering teams from both Calgary and Canada are generally decked out in red. Feeling out of place in the Sea of Red (as opposed to the C of Red) was quite bizarre. We caught the CityHopper ferry into the CBD and the lady on board said that we were Wallaby supporters #2 and #3, of the whole day! It was an amazing atmosphere to be a part of. One table of Lions supporters would start singing a irish/english/welsh/scottish song and then people from all over the restaurant would join in. The outfits were amazing. Kilts aplenty, loud red suits, furry lion costumes; you name it, we probably saw it.

Boo! Hiss! Lions supporters on the City Hopper ferry.

Looking good in the Green and Gold.

It was a beautiful night for some footy!

Brisbane CBD was decked out in Green and Gold as well.

Riverbar was a popular pre-game spot

Alan and (blurry) Bob!

Amanda and Mardell

After our pre-game refreshments we headed to Suncorp stadium, and then wandered around the Caxton Street area to soak up some more atmosphere. For those Calgary readers, it was like the Red Mile on steroids. Absolutely insane. More crazy outfits, more singing, people everywhere! We eventually made it into a bar to have a beer before heading to our seats for the big match.

Caxton Street

Beer in a bar.

Once we sat down, we realized that our incredibly good fortune in getting tickets to the game was likely the result of a block of tickets being released back for sale.
Probably by travel agents.
For tourists. 
Tourists who wanted to do the tour with their team.
Yup, we were sitting in a Lion's Den, so to speak.

Not that it was a problem. But as you can see from the pictures, there was a lot of Red jerseys, not only in our section, but in the entire stadium.

In our free hats!

They were made of foam, and they were hot. And of course, we kept them. They make for fun FaceTime chat props.

The Stadium was packed. It seats 54 000. And every seat was full.

The Red vs Gold colour numbers are pretty even here.

The yellow Wallabies hats sort of skew things a bit. I loved all the different flags that people brought and hung over the barriers.

There they are!

It's time for some footy!

Woop!

I had a big Welshman sitting next to me. He kept nudging me to tell me that the referees were dodgy, that clearly they are australian, and pointing out all the Welsh players on the Lions side. We also had 4 or 5 guys in front of us, wearing suits, and clearly well hydrated with beer.
"Divine intervention" one of them says, "That's how I'm here. Divine intervention". Yes, I wondered how he navigated the stairs without tumbling....

What we saw whenever the Lions scored a Try.

Dancing Welshman.

In the end, the Wallabies lost. But then won game 2. So it all comes down to tonight. The final match. The decider.

Go the Wallabies!

*It's not Go Wallabies or Go Lions. It's Go THE Wallabies or Go THE Lions. I will be using this vernacular going forward. Go The Flames! Go The Stamps!