Saracens are currently top of the Premier League. They are funded by South African backers and half the team is made up of South Africans so it was bound to be an interesting encounter. An under strength South Africa dominated the first half and went in 18-6 to the good. It looked like game over to me as I expected to see them extend their advantage after the break, but Saracens were playing the long game and they fought back brilliantly in the second period and got to 21-23 with a minute or two left. The game was set for a spectacular finish and Derrick Hougaard delivered with the winning drop-goal for Sarries. The 46,000 crowd lapped it up and even the South Africans in the crowd had to applaud.
An amazing thing happened at half-time too. Three fans were invited onto the pitch to attempt to hit the bar between the posts from 30 metres a la Soccer AM's Crossbar Challenge. The prize for achieving this unlikely feat was a mere £250,000. Up stepped a short bloke who decided to kick in his socks much to the amusement of the crowd. He caught the ball well and got it airborne. There was a huge gasp followed by an enormous roar in the stadium as the ball smacked the bar. You have to hope that the organisers took out appropriate insurance cover for this. If not, I suspect someone was looking very silly indeed in the posh seats!
They did take out insurance but I bet they thought they would never have to claim . Wonder what the odds are -actually its probably more than the lottery odds of 14 million to 1 He looked lost but jubilant amongst those cheerleaders who seemed to be at least a foot taller than him.
ReplyDeleteDo you think the insurancers will refuse to pay out due to the fact he did not actually 'complete' the challenge? i.e. he punted it not drop-kicked it!
ReplyDeleteThe premium would have been only a couple of grand too.
ReplyDeleteGreat story - must have been all in the socks.