So this month the Rugby World Cup kicks off. I have tickets for all of the England group matches. I intend to blog about my travels to and from the games and indeed the games themselves.

I might even waffle on about the other matches as well.

Today I finished booking my rail tickets and hotels for the next month. I used booking.com and the Accor Hotels website to find some okay deals. Marseille for the quarter finals was the worst. There were no easily findable hotels near the centre of town. Nantes was pretty hard as well booking.com only had one hotel left it would seem but I now have a roof over my head and travel plans for all of the matches I have tickets for.

So in the next month im going to get to know the insides of the Eurostar and the TGVs quite well. Beats flying though. Some of the airplane ticket prices were astronomical already even on the budget airlines.

My father is doing most of the world cup in a camper van. I would have joined him but my employers seem to want me to turn up to work.

While I am going to  few games live some of them I will still have to watch on TV with my trusty PVR recording the ones I wont be in for.  Although I am thinking about upgrading to a Humax 9200T.

The ITV schedule  will let you know what times and what channels. Yay for multi-channel TV on Freeview.

Thomas Castaignède just predicted France to win by 10. Argentina will push France quite hard. I actually think Argentina will win but it will be close.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/6976080.stm

So France are in trouble at half time. France 9-17 Argentina. They havent looked that good as well. Although dad thinks they both look better than England.

I was right. Argentina won 17-12. Although they were playing with fire at the end. The french really can be dangerous at the death.

England looked really bad during this game. We really should have beaten them by an awful lot more points. I was talking to a group of USA fans afterwards who agreed that we really should have been beating them by about 60 points at half time. Although given their performance against tonga today the usa may not be all that bad

A 30 point win by Fiji. Japan may score a try or two.

While Fiji are never that great at the 15 man version of the game they should be able to beat Japan easily. Even with their ringers.

I might be wrong here. Although japan may tire yet.

Im also intrigued by the fijians number 8 at the scrum. He seems to be holding onto his locks and leaning back then pushing forward when they engage. Perhaps it adds to their shove.

Well that was an exciting game. Japan were really quite good and pushed Fiji very hard. The Fijians could have been their own worse enemy at the end there. They had at least 2 chances to kick to touch which they missed.

Italy should be good enough these days to beat Romania but given some of the other matches so far this tournament i don't know.  I predict a 20 point win for Italy.

Quite dull so far especially when compared to the previous game. Italy look the better side but arnt making the best use of their possession.

A better game in the second half.  Italy should have done better though.

bbc

Made it to paris on the eurostar. Finally found my hotel. Sitting at a cafe outside the gare du nord. Having a beer while waiting for dad.
England are going to get thumped i think. That or we sneak by it by 2 points.

Well thats not going well. When it was still 10 - 0 we had a chance. That last try was a killer blow I suspect. Although we didnt look as bad as last week and they have only really scored from broken play.

Well that was crap. England looked better but had no penetration. Hopefully jason robinson isnt to badly injured. The south africans looked really good although they only scored from broken play.
the atmosphere at the ground was really good. The stadium is very impressive.

Currently sitting on a TGV between Paris and Nantes. Its really quite full. I was lucky on the eurostar as I got 2 seats to myself. The connection across Paris was a bit close. It is probably worth prebuying your Metro tickets at the eurostar terminal in london and knowing which metro line you want. In this case line 4 "the pink one" between Gare du Nord and Montparnasse. The walk from the tube to the train is quite long.
Hopefully i can find somewhere to watch tonights crunch match between France and Ireland. I suspect France will win.

Ive not had a chance to watch any matches this week. Work sent me to Utrecht. The dutch dont seem to show rugby matches in their bars. Ive not even been able to keep up with the cricket. So I've had nothing to blog about.

I have a post in my head about the first weekend and the interesting things which happened but work and real life keep on getting in the way of writing it.

Caught the last 20 minutes of this game in a bar full of french supporters. France looked awesome. Obviously the loss to Argentina was the kick in the arse they needed.

Missed the start since I was having a really nice dinner. Post to follow about that.

Yet to find hordes of England supporters. Perhaps they are all turning up tommorrow.

Just made it in time for the match. Trams rock. England to win by about 5

Well England look a lot better. Weak at times but in attack we almost look like a real team again. I think Wilkinson really helps if nothing else we can bore them to death with penalties now and some decent line kicking.

Quite a flattering result in the end. We didnt look that good in the second half. Some good tries but otherwise we looked a bit crap really.

Thankfully last night we didnt drink to much so i feel relatively okay. Made the train with plenty of time to spare. The train is very purple. There is also quite a bit of legroom which makes a change from yesterdays train. There is enough room i dont mind having the window seat. Im normally an aisle man given my size. Does mean i can stare at the french countryside as it rushes pass.

Good try by the USA at the end of the half. They are certainly showing more flair than england did against south africa. I suspect south africa are going to score a lot of points in the second half.
Good atmosphere at the match. the train journey was long so it best be a good match.

Watch the rugby, its more exciting. (although im blogging so i cant really talk)

So the states lost by a lot but attacked a lot more than england did against the south africans. South africa still look awesome. They really do have a chance of winning the title this time round.

Instead of taking the eurostar from London to Lille then tgv to Marseille im starting my travels from Utrecht. So first a train to Schipol, then a plane to Clermont-Ferrand then a plane to Marseille. Then a camper van to Arles. Since we couldnt find any decent hotels in Marseille. So we will be taking trains from Arles to Marseille for the matches this weekend.

Very sunny in Marseille. This is not good for England. So I suspect we will lose. I think Australia will win by 20. If they dont we will win by about 3

We actually played quite well for once. We look like a ruigby team this week. We are unlucky to be trailing. Then again with the one chance australia had they scored a try. Weve had several decent chances but havent made full use of them.

Woo! We won. Exciting finish. We looked good for once. The aussies scrum was under pressure all match. They wouldnt have been able to contain new zealand in the next round. So they may as well lose this round. Makes the England tournament respectable even if we go out next week.

New zealand by lots i suspect. In a bar in Arles watching it. Had tartare du chef with bulls meat for dinner. Raw egg and all.

Another shock win today. Allez le blues. Makes our semi easier. Very tense match at the end. The french in the bar are very happy. As some frenchman told me after the loss to argentina "to be champions we will have to beat new zealand" just they had to do it in the quarters and they have. The country may almost forgive for losing against argenrtina now. South africa now have the best chance of winning the world cup.

Given last nights results im tempted to predict a Fijian win. However South Africa have looked the form team in the tournament and this match matters. So I think they will win by 30.

Got distracted by getting back to the station for our train to Arles. South Africa won convincingly in the end but Fiji certainly gave them a fright. The two tries to draw level were fantastic and they were down a man at the time.

A win by 20 points for Argentina. Scotland may stifle them but they should still win

Scotland came close at the end there. The kick was probably the wrong choice. At least it made sure all 4 quarter-finals were exciting and tense to the end. Roll on the semis.

Whizzing through the french countryside on hopefully my last tgv. Its a double decker which is quite fun. There is a lot of legroom even in second class. I can even have the table out which is quite a novelty these days. Toilets are broken though.
3g coverage is a bit patchy in the countryside. Still 1.5 hours till Lille already been on this train for 3 hours(the one from Arles to Marseille took an hour). Admittedly I suspect its a lot faster than you could do in Britain. Marseille to Lille is a long way after all.

So for most of the tournament the touts have been taking a pasting. There have been so many spares for every game ive been too. Most people would have bought lots 2 years ago so have spent the money already so were

... full train of people getting off to get on another. 45 minutes is possibly enough time to change from tgv to the eurostar normally at lille but not when everyone was on it. I made it but i do wonder if they will have to hold the train or will the time taken to load us all give everyone a chance to make it through security.

Just got off the ferry at Boulounge speeding to Paris in the car. We managed to get 2 tickets off a kiwi in London for a not to inflated price. We need a third but were not to fussed. One of us will go and watch it at the eiffel tower.
Dad even managed to find a hotel about 2.5k from stade de france. So its all good. Now to pray for rain.

... And found another ticket almost instantly again at only 30% markup. Having another beer before we go hunting a cash machine since were down to our last rounds worth of euros.

The atmosphere is great here. England to win by 3. It will be a close low scoring game.

Good try by lewsey to start. Weve held them back since. Neither team has taken control yet. Still a tight match. The england fans are a bit quiet. Then again all the aussies and kiwis here are shouting for france as well.

Excuse my french but Fuck Me! What a result. What a game. So tense at the end. Four more years! At least if we lose the title now we do so in the final.

Argentina to win. Im so pissed while doing a circle line pub crawl.

So somehow England have made it to the final. South Africa have looked good all tournament. This wont be the beating we got in the pool matches but I still think were going to lose. It will be close though. I think South Africa by  5.

Although ideally our forwards step up again and we win by 3 points or so. :)

Close, very close.  South Africa were unlucky to not score a try at the end there. England certainly look a lot better than they did in the pool game. We still might do it.

Bugger! well at least we lost our title in the final. South Africa have looked like champs all the way through. I dont think it was a try either.