Nations Cup 2009
Day One: Monday saw the first fixtures of this year's competition; France v South Africa and England v USA and because of the heat, the kick-offs are scheduled for late afternoon - 4.30pm and 6.30pm.
Although it doesn't make much of difference as it is still baking and there's high humidity. And what is strange is that being based on a campus means no changing facilities like one would normally be used to. With the teams all being boarded in separate houses/dorms, the pre-match logistics of kit checks, front row briefs and coin tosses, etc, go a little out of sync.
But the killer with late kick-offs is the wait... like the players, you wake up and just want to get on with it... but you can't, and the hours drag by.
My work for the day consisted of fourth official for the first game and assistant referee for the second.
Having holidayed in France quite a lot, I can get by with the language, just, but trying to control the technical area and substitutions calls for a little more pigeon French than I can muster.
Having said that, the French are renown for their hand gestures and we eventually get along just fine - despite the fact they, like most of the teams, push the boundaries.
The second game saw England overcome a resilient USA side. It was a case of England's attack against the US's defence, but the team of the day for me were the South Africans.
Having refereed them in the World Cup (2006) against Australia, when they were quite honestly woeful, I was amazed at just how far they had come.
The 7s influence (they have their entire World Cup 7s team in the squad) is plain to to see, and their workrate and tackling is second-to-none.
They held France to a 17-17 draw, although were unlucky to lose as France scored in the final play to draw the game.
Day one is done, here's to day two, and my shot in the middle.
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