TICKET MELTDOWN AND SOME UBOGU JUICE

Texts and calls demanding tickets for the final, ‘friends’ reminding me of favours they had done for me 10 years before, people I had never met who had got my number from God knows where offering any price I wanted just to be here on Saturday.

Obviously I decided the best thing I could do was ignore them. It was back in to the centre of Paris with the VU crowd and a party to match the occasion. No details here but the BBC has come up with a new phrase ‘Ubogu juice’ and plenty of that was consumed.

There was no time to recover the next morning. I logged on to my emails and was hit by a barrage of even more requests for World Cup Final tickets. In all I have had more than 400 requests to me personally and the phones at the office in Bath have been going berserk as well. Quite a few requests have been from those who have been on other VU trips during the tournament but quite a few are from the glory hunters who only fancied the final once they knew England were in it.

The answer has always been the same. We sold out to 300 lucky VU Ltd clients several months ago and there is not a lot I can do. Some of those coming over to Paris this weekend are over optimistic Irish and Welsh fans but the majority are England fans who took a punt and booked with us earlier in the year when England were seen as no hopers – and now it has paid off. The money being offered for tickets is just incredible and certainly four figure numbers. I would be able to retire and buy a gold plated Ferrari if I was able to fulfil all the requests coming in. Last night I was up until 2am answering emails then my new baby decided to wake us up at 4am. Never mind, these are happy days.

One interesting knock-on effect is that I am now being bombarded with bookings for the Six Nations. Rugby fever is sweeping the country, tickets for the Six Nations are now a must have and long may it continue.

Paris was great fun last weekend and fellow blogger Mark Regan very generously popped along on Sunday to give the VU crowd the inside story from the England camp. It has been fantastic to have so many former internationals as part of the VU party but to have access to someone who is part of this terrific team has been extra special.

This weekend’s trip will be a Bath orientated affair. Andy Robinson, Phil De Glanville, Matt Perry and Jerry Guscott will be joining me. I have spoken to the lads and I have got to say we are all as tense as each other. There must be a certain amount of mixed emotions for Andy, but he is a proud Englishman and must be delighted that many of the players he brought into the set-up have performed so well.

I said at the start of the tournament that England would do better than expected – although I did not go as far as to say they would retain the Cup. I also picked South Africa as the most likely to come out on top. I now have everything crossed that my prediction was wrong.

You might be interested to see a couple of clips that are up and on the web. A delightful young lady from the Daily Telegraph came along and asked me to teach her a bit about rugby. She filmed it for their website. I am having a bit of trouble forming a link to it but go to the Telegraph website and search on it there. I had heard that the reporter, Celia Walden, goes out with Piers Morgan. I wonder if she will pass on a few of these tips. The other clip is from my friends at the BBC who have come up with this strange game Ubogu which I wrote about in previous blogs. When I was in Paris at the weekend we did a bit about it on video and you can watch it here

I see that quotes from Ronnie Regan’s blog are being used by journalists for their articles. Remember boys feel free to plug the blog if you are using the quotes!

Anyway let’s raise a glass of Ubogu Juice to an England victory. I know we can do it. It is a one-off game and the biggest that any of these players will be a part of. I can’t wait for that open-top bus ride. Sorry about the tickets but remember get in now for the Six Nations. Rugby is the hottest ticket in town!