Page 37 - All Shapes & Zebras From Treorchy

A big day out on a match day in Cardiff - an ‘all-dayer’ – is truly something to behold! I should also mention here that in Welsh rugby parlance, and ‘all-dayer’ is known by many as a ‘Mikey Rayer’ in homage to the cult 90s Welsh fullback. On these special and hallowed days, the pubs are packed, expectancy is high and the mood (before the final whistle, at least) is positively buoyant. It’s a heady mix and, to put it bluntly, on match days in Cardiff, you are alive!
A parley of sorts exists between warring amateur club factions on international match days. On the neutral territory of St Mary’s Street and its offshoots, parochial isolationism is paused for the greater good of national pride and awkward exchanges are punctuated with cordial small talk: “Who’ve you got next weekend?”, a typical peace offering for the day. By full-time, you may be friends with players from rival teams, united in either glee or despondency by the deeds of 15 (or 23, as it’s a squad game) men in red.
No matter what form your club is in – flying high or tiring against a foreboding tide of relegation – international match days in Cardiff offer a release, and are a way to relieve the club’s collective pressure valve before hostilities recommence soon after.
Part of the beauty of the Cardiff match day experience is that the Principality Stadium (although it was, and always will be, the Millennium Stadium to thousands) lies at the heart of the city. You can literally finish your pint in a pub on St Mary’s Street at 2:50pm and, if the gates on your ticket are kind enough, be in your stadium seat for a 3pm kick off.
Games to light up dull, dark days, November Internationals offer up a welcome tonic as the depths of winter begin to take hold and the gloomy grey hues stretch out before us. But it’s the Six Nations and all the ensuing drama that prove to be the rugby fans’ ultimate ‘manna from heaven’, stirring the souls and creating memories for rugby romantics. Global pandemics aside, as the Six Nations rolls around as regularly as clockwork, the games are a welcome marker; a collective grip on existence around which the masses assemble in order to be wowed and pass judgement.
ALL SHAPES & ZEBRAS FROM TREORCHY 35