The draw was too good to be true, and the day had finally arrived...
England v France in the Rugby World Cup 2011 quarter finals in New Zealand.
Unfortunately, since moving to Aix-en-Provence I've not seen much of the action from the World Cup as we don't have Canal+, the main sports channel here in France, in the house that I live in.
So rather than the norm of watching poor quality internet streams, or the highlights of matches on the news, my friends and I decided seen as it was a special occasion that we would go into the town centre and watch it with les gens.
The 9:30am K.O. was something I wasn't looking forward too, as it meant a very unwelcome 8:00am alarm.
Although I was très fatigué walking into town I was in surprisingly high spirits, and naively expecting a comfortable England victory.
We all met at La Rotande in the centre of town and went to an Irish pub called O'Sullivans, all hoping to have better luck than the Irish had earlier in the morning.
They suffered a 22-10 defeat at the hands of the Welsh, and I was praying we would not suffer a similar fate.
Surrounding by many locals, and after several café noirs to wake myself up, the match began...well, for the French at least.
There seemed to be no passion, desire or drive from the Red Rose boys and by half time and it was 16-0 to France.
Our heads were well and truly placed in the guillotine - it was do or die for the England players.
However, despite a stronger start from England in the second half, it was not enough to topple the French who eventually came out on top with a 19-12 victory.
I'm really disappointed England are out of the tournament, but France well and truly deserved the win.
All I can say now is Vive la France!...
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