Saracens Blog Post
Yesterday we had the pleasure of visiting Allianz Park in Hendon, London. We were lucky enough to watch Saracens, currently top of the table in the Aviva Premiership, take on Bath who are sitting in ninth. From the very beginning the experience felt different than the our previous trips to soccer matches had felt. Allianz park is located in the middle of a large field and unlike most premier league stadiums, lots of people drive and park to watch the game. As we walked in we passed a long queue of cars waiting to park. Once we were past the gate we saw thousands of people getting ready for the rugby match. 
Unlike soccer matches, Rugby fans are allowed to drink in the stands during the game. Most people of age had some sort of drink in their hands. The coffee stand was offering Irish coffee, the booth next to it offered different wines and spirits and the main concessions sold anything from a half pint glass to a four pint bag of a large number of different beers. Not only was there alcohol a plenty, but the food outside the stadium was excellent. My flatmates and I enjoyed a typical German Bratwurst before the game. Once it was time to get started we filed into the stadium and took our seats on the far end of the pitch. Saracens would be defending this end in the first half of play. 
As the game started and Saracen began losing early on to Bath we noticed that unlike soccer fans, rugby fans were a bit more tame. Even while watching their team lose they didn’t immediately jump on the referee with a slew of different curse words and gestures, like we had seen at some of the soccer matches we attended. Instead, for the most part, the people around us just cheered on Saracens and watched intently. After a rough first half Saracens was down by 13 points making the score 13-0 Bath in the lead. This didn’t last long however as Saracens roared back in the second half to first tie the game at 13-13, then pull ahead and and win with a final score of 19-13. The game of rugby itself was somewhat confusing to watch for the first half of play. As someone who plays American Football I found myself often confused with what was actually happening on the pitch. While the tackling, running and contact reminded me of football, the stops in play and transitions between possession were hard to keep track of. Often, someone would get tackled and in the pile that ensued that hit someone would get noticeably hurt and lie at the bottom of a pile trying to protect themselves, the referees would wait for the contact to die down and would then blow their whistles to have trainers go look at the injured player. This happened with some frequency and players would typically get wrapped up and go right back out. Only once was a player injured to a point where he was taken off the field and that was for a head/spinal injury. Otherwise everyone kept playing. By the end of the match there was at least one player with his head wrapped in an attempt to stop him bleeding, it wasn’t working very well, which could easily be seen when the camera zoomed in on him, a large individual with blood soaked tape wrapped around his head. 
The experience as a whole was great. The game of rugby and the atmosphere around it was truly different than any I personally had experienced to date. It made a rugby fan out of me and it is certainly a game I would watch again if I were to have the opportunity. I think our trip to Saracens helped gain me a greater understanding of not only how the game is played on the pitch but also how it is supported by its fans and how deeply it is followed and appreciated.
