Anyone travelling to the game tomorrow night. The parking at Hunter Stadium is sold out. Alternatives:
- Park at Newcastle Entertainment Centre ($7) 10 minute walk. Opens at 4:30pm
- Park at Lambton Swimming Pool. Shuttle buses every 10 mins
- there may be street parking but I have no idea of the area.
Here's a couple of places to type into google maps (for some reason can't get the links to work):
1) Perth rd Broadmeadow to Hunter Stadium Broadmeadow NSW (this is an 11min walk approx)
2) Sunnyside Tavern, Broadmeadow Road, Broadmeadow, New South Wales to Hunter Stadium Broadmeadow NSW (this is roughly a 14min walk & there is usually street parking around the nearby Smith Park)
Hamilton Harps women's team will be at the Sunnyside from 5:30pm Tuesday for pre-game drinks. I'll be at the Hunter Stadium instead as the Wallabies will be meeting fans there from 6pm.
As far as the squad goes I'm pretty happy with the line-up. Solid front row. I would of had Pyle or Carter ahead of Siteleki Timani but I don't mind seeing him have another go. With Sharpie it's great to get to see him play live (well, not on TV) at least once before he hangs up the boots in the not too distant future. David Pocock - quite literally worth the price of admission. Higgers I hope will bring some of his loose play into the game to prevent things getting dour, he could light things up. Dennis has worked his ring out & deserves his spot. Inside backs are solid. I'd really like to see Barnes have a great game. Very excited to see Diggers on one wing, Tomane on the other, & Morahan at the full back - only concern I have is whether the weather will prevent these players from getting enough quality ball. The reserves are pretty good, say what you will about Saia but he is def a fan fav going by the comments about him here in Newcastle - he'd be a crowd fav. A little disappointed to not see Nic White on the bench as he's a local. Mowen a bit unlucky but wasn't he just brought in?
The weather forecast Tuesday from the Newcastle herald is: 8-16deg, rainy & windy, cloudy. Isolated showers developing around dawn, increasing to rain by early evening. Winds W 40 to 60 km/h turning S/SW 50 to 70 km/h near the coast later.
Add to the fact that its been pissing down most of the weekend & early this morning it certainly is going to be wet.
Ma said something about apparently we are going to get soon the same kind of weather that beached the Pasha Bulker during the floods, joy.
I couldn't care less about the rain in terms of personal comfort, I love the rain. I'll have my full Drizabone & I'll be watching my first Wallaby test at an actual ground here in my own backyard. The only thing that could ruin it is that I have Ma on one side of me who really loves Richie Gray ("Oh he's gorgeous!" she'd say every time we'd see him during the World cup), on the other side is a mate following Scotland (& she
hates the Wallabies). If this is a dour affair like it was at Murrayfield then sitting between these two could make for a painful 80min - never mind the rain!
There has been some tragedy in Newcastle Rugby recently with a very promising player losing his life in a car accident (more in the Newcastle Rugby thread). Hopefully this game can give those locally who are shocked at the recent event, a bit of a chance to escape from whats happened, if only briefly.
