Business Traveller

I don’t want to be churlish. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I may want to be just a little bit churlish…

First the history – when the rugby world cup tickets were first released for sale, I really wasn’t at all sure how well South Africa would do – so rather than buy tickets for the semis or the finals, I tried to buy tickets for the pool match against England. Except that they sold out in record time, so I couldn’t get any.

Sitting in a bar in Dusseldorf with some kiwi colleagues, they asked me if I’d bought tickets, and I told them about the pool game tickets being sold out. With massive grins on their faces, they proudly told me that the only game they had bought tickets for was the final. That’s it. That’s how certain they were that they’d be there. At the time, I joked with them that the kiwis are chokers, and would almost certainly lose this world cup too, but the arrogance of the kiwis had me secretly wishing that they get knocked out before the final.

Then this weekend, all my Christmases came early. Now the most difficult thing I have to try and achieve is to smile knowingly without being a smug bastard – just in case South Africa are next…