Taking the Kids to the Rugby and Other Waratah Cock-Ups

The Rolling Maul took the boys (aged 6 and 4) to the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday afternoon, their first time seeing the Waratahs in action. Just as well it was a good match, because off the field, Waratahs management and administration have a lot of work to do


Clearly the work experience kids were in charge of Waratahs HQ on Sunday. The 6 year old's free Junior membership card was supposed to entitle him to a free ticket, but the list price for a family ticket ($60) would have meant no saving at all with two adults ($25 each) and the extra kid ($10). When the Rolling Maul pointed this out to the woman in Waratahs clothing directing us sheep in the queue at the Waratahs membership booth, she essentially said ‘tough’ and directed the Maul to the Junior membership enquiry window to buy the family ticket, where I presented the membership card and was then given a $5 discount. Huh!

Meanwhile, a mate of the Maul wasn’t given the ‘as advertised’ $20 adult ticket and kids free promotion which no one had heard of at the ground bar the marketing department (the other work experience kid no doubt). He then was directed to the wrong side of the ground. The fact he had general admission tickets didn’t seem to matter, he still had to leave the stadium and walk round to the opposite side. And that was even before the pleasure of queueing to buy $7.20 beers in plastic cups.

Nowadays Tah management can't even afford this horse -
Tah Man has to walk everywhere
Pre-match entertainment was non-existent, seems it’s more important that teams warm up on the field. Whatever happened to the good old days of a pre-match match at a time when people are there to see it? At least there’s Tah Man. It's a mystery why he works but he does. He’s cringeworthy and pathetic and everyone knows it but the kids think he’s great. High fives all round, pictures with the kids and some dancing seems to do the trick. It’s a surprise the Tahs haven’t got rid of him as a cost-cutting exercise, certainly there’s no more flags or inflatable noise sticks or any other giveaways these days.

At least the Waratahs won and handsomely at that. Most of the action was up the other end of the field in the first half (fortunately) so reports of the efforts of Cliffy Palu and Will Skelton cannot be confirmed. But Jacques Potgeiter is the real deal. Crunching tackles and strong ball carries, let's just hope this rubs off on Skelton.

And Folau is a freak. The kids got into it once he scored in front of them (they'd joined all the other hordes of kids on the fence by that stage). And even if it took 15 minutes for the second siren at least it existed, the Maul got some snaps of the kids crash-tackling each other under the posts, Dave Dennis bled over everybody from a cut on his chin while signing autogpaphs, Will Skelton was a nice guy and all the Tahs signed their names endlessly.

If only Tahs management can sort out their pricing, lay on some goodies and some decent pre-match Rugby then we'd probably come again, though we'd sacrifice it for a Super Rugby Championship if that's what it takes.

Comments

Dominic Horton said…
Dear RM, thanks again for another highly entertaining edition. I live not far from Cadburys in Birmingham and we used to play football (association football not rugby football) against them on their pitch in the grounds which is as sumptuous as their chocolate. I drink with a bloke called Tony Abbot in the Flagon & Gorses but if he was in charge of Oz your country would be in a far worse state than it currently is as although he talks a good game he is fundamentally a buffoon.

http://dominichorton.blogspot.co.uk/