England 25 - 13 Scotland at Twickenham

An afternoon (well, early evening really) I'd been looking forward to. The last time I went to Twickers was to see England play Ireland in the first game that England played since winning the World Cup in 2003. We went in anticipation of thrashing the Irish but came home with our tails between our legs as Ireland won 10-13.

This time it was different - a win for England but a far from convincing win. Scotland were ahead 10-13 at half time and were by far the more disciplined and better drilled side. England made far too many basic errors. Two tries were disallowed owing to forward passes and at least three other try scoring opportunities went begging as players took the wrong option. Hands were poor too, many knock-ons and dropped passes. Even the body language suggested their heart and soul was not in the game.

But what a spectacle though. The whole experience from setting off from Bearsted to getting back home. Smooth journey, arriving at our seats in the stadium at4.30pm fro a 5.00pm kick-off after a pint of Guiness. Experiencing the vastness of the space, the hurly bury of the crowd, the skirl of the pipes and swirl of kilts. Everyone friendly, hospitable and courteous.

Then the growing expectation as kick-off approached, the swelling crowd the rising crescendo of noise culminating in the singing of Jerusalem, Flower of Scotland and the Nationa Anthem roared out by 82, 264 people.

And in a flash it was all over, an error strewn England had won, the Welsh had done England a favour by beating the Irish which meant there was everything to play for next weekend when any one of three teams could lift the Six Nations trophy.

The packed stands emptied rapidly as most of the 82,000 crown headed for Twickenham railway station and a train to Waterloo. Now, that will annoy the hell out of the French next week. If the come from London the will have to leave and return to London from Waterloo! Having hopefully, met their Waterloo by being hansomely beaten by England.

South West trains did everyone proud though. It took just over the hour to get from our seats in the stadium onto a train to Waterloo but from there via London Victoria we were back home in two hours. Trains every few minutes and all on time. A grand day out.