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Delima

by Delima
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nufcjb

nufcjb

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Posted

I like the fact that at the rugby at SJP, they have cameras on the far side of the pitch as we see it so that when there's a lineout or a try on that side, they'll use those cameras and we actually have the view of the Milburn stand in the background. It looks massive and great on tv at night. Would be a s*** view from there though on a sunny day with the sun facing the cameras. Still, seeing SJP looking like a big cathredal makes it look so good!

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Wallace

Wallace

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Posted

Some valid points raised about Ashley's NUFC in relation to the rugby.

 

Personally think SJP and the city have been a fabulous experience and have felt the contrast deeply.

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/11923359/New-Zealand-vs-Tonga-St-James-Park-wooed-by-All-Blacks.html

 

By Jonathan Liew, St James' Park

11:25PM BST 09 Oct 2015

 

There was a religious fellow standing outside the stadium before the game, handing out a pamphlet entitled ‘The Ultimate Conversion’. It began with the story of Wales’s famous last-gasp 19-18 win against Scotland in 1971.

 

It continued: “There was another day when people thought it was all over. With their false accusations and persuasion they had managed to get a crowd to cry out: ‘Crucify Him’. And that is exactly what happened.”

 

You might identify a certain evangelical optimism in comparing a game of rugby to the Passion of Christ. And by all accounts, there were very few spectators at Golgotha that day muttering, “Tell you what, this crucifixion reminds me of that John Taylor conversion”.

 

But ever since the World Cup arrived in Newcastle, evangelical optimism has been sweeping through the place like fire. It may not win the Jesmond Parish Church too many new worshippers, but it may yet win over a whole new generation of rugby fans.

 

For against all the odds, this staunchest of football towns has taken the World Cup to heart. The fan zone at Science Central has been one of the best-attended in the country, with 34,000 packed in last weekend and similar numbers expected this.

 

Sufficiently emboldened, Newcastle Falcons are trying to tempt new fans to Kingston Park with special £50 quarter-season tickets. Manchester, with its single meaningless fixture, must be casting envious looks.

 

The jamboree continued into St James’s Park, with 51,000 crammed in to watch this competent if hardly vintage New Zealand victory over Tonga. But then again, for most here the result was a largely tangential concern. What mattered was that this was the All Blacks – the actual All Blacks! – on their turf. They whooped and cheered every score by both sides, held up shaky camera phones for the haka, rose and fell for the Mexican wave. For most, probably, this was just a nice night out. But just maybe, for a curious few, it was the start of something.

 

There were families with young children. Bare-chested Tongan men in full national regalia. New Zealanders in All Blacks tops. New Zealand fans in All Blacks tops. Dinner ladies from Wallsend in All Blacks tops. Yes, it was a jolly and sundry multitude that filed past the statue of Sir Bobby Robson from early evening, filling the Gallowgate and the Milburn Stand of what on any other weekend would be known as the Sports Direct Arena. Not this time.

 

Every single advert for budget sportswear had been excised from the backdrop, and it was hard not to be moved by the contrast.

This may be one presumption too far, but perhaps one of the reasons Newcastle has fallen so deeply for this World Cup is the true paucity of sporting fare this city has been served in recent years. Government cuts have pared funding for municipal sport to the bone. The much-loved City swimming pool closed in 2013. Then, of course you have Newcastle United, a great football club slowly being hollowed out from the inside; their fans turning up more out of habit than exhilaration, like spouses trapped in a loveless marriage.

Was Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle, watching? This is how you do world-class sport in this city: with enthusiasm and atmosphere, with charm and conviviality, with a smile and not a scowl. And the All Blacks is how you do a world-class sports team: a team with a rich history, a common culture, an unbreakable credo, a shared sense of destiny. And who just happen – to put this in terms Mr Ashley may understand a little better – to be one of the most commercially lucrative sporting outfits on the planet.

 

You may not be a fan of the All Blacks or even like them very much, but at least they stand for something. What do Newcastle United stand for these days? When the World Cup circus finally packs up and leaves the North-East, what will be left? Just a mess to clean up, flags to take down, a husk of a football club to follow. Just a city and a public that may finally realise it deserves better; that may even, in some extreme cases, be susceptible to the ultimate conversion.

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geordiesteve710

geordiesteve710

Posted
Posted

Some valid points raised about Ashley's NUFC in relation to the rugby.

 

Personally think SJP and the city have been a fabulous experience and have felt the contrast deeply.

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/rugby-world-cup/11923359/New-Zealand-vs-Tonga-St-James-Park-wooed-by-All-Blacks.html

 

By Jonathan Liew, St James' Park

11:25PM BST 09 Oct 2015

 

There was a religious fellow standing outside the stadium before the game, handing out a pamphlet entitled ‘The Ultimate Conversion’. It began with the story of Wales’s famous last-gasp 19-18 win against Scotland in 1971.

 

It continued: “There was another day when people thought it was all over. With their false accusations and persuasion they had managed to get a crowd to cry out: ‘Crucify Him’. And that is exactly what happened.”

 

You might identify a certain evangelical optimism in comparing a game of rugby to the Passion of Christ. And by all accounts, there were very few spectators at Golgotha that day muttering, “Tell you what, this crucifixion reminds me of that John Taylor conversion”.

 

But ever since the World Cup arrived in Newcastle, evangelical optimism has been sweeping through the place like fire. It may not win the Jesmond Parish Church too many new worshippers, but it may yet win over a whole new generation of rugby fans.

 

For against all the odds, this staunchest of football towns has taken the World Cup to heart. The fan zone at Science Central has been one of the best-attended in the country, with 34,000 packed in last weekend and similar numbers expected this.

 

Sufficiently emboldened, Newcastle Falcons are trying to tempt new fans to Kingston Park with special £50 quarter-season tickets. Manchester, with its single meaningless fixture, must be casting envious looks.

 

The jamboree continued into St James’s Park, with 51,000 crammed in to watch this competent if hardly vintage New Zealand victory over Tonga. But then again, for most here the result was a largely tangential concern. What mattered was that this was the All Blacks – the actual All Blacks! – on their turf. They whooped and cheered every score by both sides, held up shaky camera phones for the haka, rose and fell for the Mexican wave. For most, probably, this was just a nice night out. But just maybe, for a curious few, it was the start of something.

 

There were families with young children. Bare-chested Tongan men in full national regalia. New Zealanders in All Blacks tops. New Zealand fans in All Blacks tops. Dinner ladies from Wallsend in All Blacks tops. Yes, it was a jolly and sundry multitude that filed past the statue of Sir Bobby Robson from early evening, filling the Gallowgate and the Milburn Stand of what on any other weekend would be known as the Sports Direct Arena. Not this time.

 

Every single advert for budget sportswear had been excised from the backdrop, and it was hard not to be moved by the contrast.

This may be one presumption too far, but perhaps one of the reasons Newcastle has fallen so deeply for this World Cup is the true paucity of sporting fare this city has been served in recent years. Government cuts have pared funding for municipal sport to the bone. The much-loved City swimming pool closed in 2013. Then, of course you have Newcastle United, a great football club slowly being hollowed out from the inside; their fans turning up more out of habit than exhilaration, like spouses trapped in a loveless marriage.

Was Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle, watching? This is how you do world-class sport in this city: with enthusiasm and atmosphere, with charm and conviviality, with a smile and not a scowl. And the All Blacks is how you do a world-class sports team: a team with a rich history, a common culture, an unbreakable credo, a shared sense of destiny. And who just happen – to put this in terms Mr Ashley may understand a little better – to be one of the most commercially lucrative sporting outfits on the planet.

 

You may not be a fan of the All Blacks or even like them very much, but at least they stand for something. What do Newcastle United stand for these days? When the World Cup circus finally packs up and leaves the North-East, what will be left? Just a mess to clean up, flags to take down, a husk of a football club to follow. Just a city and a public that may finally realise it deserves better; that may even, in some extreme cases, be susceptible to the ultimate conversion.

 

Good article, aside from the Sports Direct Arena jibe.

 

"Hollowed out from the inside" just about perfectly sums Newcastle United up.

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Guest Howaythetoon

Guest Howaythetoon

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Posted

The Tonga players stayed at wor lass' work place and they had nowt but great things to say about SJP, the City and people.

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