From England-Australia to the Springboks to Tottenham-Chelsea: that Saturday in London

London, Saturday 1 November: 6 stadiums, 300 thousand people. This will be the afternoon of the English capital: 3 rugby matches (and what matches) and 3 football matches, international test matches and the Premier League which intertwine in a set of stories that only a world capital of sport like London can host. We start with the starter in Brentford between the legendary invitational selection of the Barbarians and the All Blacks XV, the second New Zealand team. Then in sold out Twickenhamthe temple of world rugby, England debuts in the Autumn Nations Series against Australia at 4.10pm to take revenge after the sensational mockery of a year ago, when the Wallabies cameback to win 42-37 in London with a try by Jorgensen as time expired. And an hour later rugby will also take possession of the temple of football: The world champions South Africa will arrive at Wembley to challenge Japan, in a revival of the sensational Japanese success of 10 years ago. At the same time, again in London, 3 Premier League matches will be played: Crystal Palace-Brentford and Fulham-Wolverhampton at 4.10pm, and above all the fiery London derby between Tottenham and Chelsea at 6.30pm. All in one afternoon, all in a few hours.

between twickenham and the premier

—

Just a few tube stops apart, different – ​​but at the same time similar – ways of experiencing the pre-match intertwine between Twickenham and the London football districts. The build-up to the match, for England fans, begins at Twickenham itself. The village around the stadium is a continuous row of pubs and stalls, people arrive with backpacks, scarves, sandwiches and it only takes a few minutes to understand why Sir Clive Woodward, the manager of England’s world champions in 2003, defined Twickenham “the greatest pub in the world”. And then the Australian fans will arrive, who will certainly make themselves heard both from the point of view of support and, more concretely, from the point of view of alcohol. It is played at 4.10pm, at the same time as Crystal Palace-Brentford and Fulham-Wolverhampton. Wanting to draw a sort of “fan map”, going a little further south, after Wimbledon, you arrive at Selhurst Park, the home of Crystal Palace, a true family tradition. A report from Vice had in fact told how almost all Palace fans had become such thanks to parents or grandparents, practically a family tradition: “I support Crystal Palace because my grandfather was a bus driver in the Elmers End garage, about three miles from here. He took me for the first time in 1963, and I’m still here.” Unlike the large stadiums of the Premier League, where it is easier for single groups to form, at Selhurst Park the atmosphere is different, as if everyone knows everyone: perhaps this is not the case, given that the stadium has 25,000 seats (and they are about to expand it) but the atmosphere is exactly that. Furthermore, while Brentford fans will be at Selhurst Park, their home (the Brentford Community Stadium) will be occupied by rugby, with the Barbarians taking on the All Blacks XV, with many players then joining the first team returning from Chicago’s clash with Ireland. To the west there is Craven Cottage, the home of Fulham: fans meet before the match in pubs such as the Golden Lion or the Durell Arms, amidst chants, beers and sandwiches. The stadium has recently been renovated with the addition of the new Riverside Stand, defined by the Guardian as “a little jewel on the Thames between tradition and opulence”. At 6.30pm there will then be the London derby between Tottenham and Chelsea at New White Hart Lane, in north London, where Spurs fans gather at the pub that they themselves helped save and buy in 2015, The Antwerp Arms, the first community-owned pub in north London. Spurs fans have very deep-rooted pre-match rituals: some fans refuse to wash their shirt after a victory, convinced that this way the energy of success can remain for a long time, others have a special scarf that they only take out for special occasions, or superstitions related to never wearing anything red so as not to bring luck to Arsenal’s rivals. Just like a casino player clutching an amulet, these objects become physical extensions of faith.

wembley: rugby in the temple of football

—

For everyone, Wembley is “football”. Yet on that lawn (old and new) incredible pages of the history of the oval ball were written: and it’s not us who say it, but those at Guinness World Records. In fact, Wembley holds the absolute record for spectators for a rugby match, both club (83 thousand for the 2014 London derby between Saracens and Harlequins) and national, with All Blacks-Argentina and Ireland-Romania which recorded over 89 thousand spectators at the 2015 World Cup. And if – beyond the various finals – Wembley is mainly associated with the English national team, rugby succeeded in removing the white from the stands of the old stadium in 1999, when Wales won the last great match of the Five Nations (which from the following year would become six teams) beating England 32-31 at Wembley, which for the occasion was much more red than white. This time the temple of football will welcome the world champions of the oval ball: South Africa. Opposite is Japan, and beware of considering it a banal match: 10 years ago in England (but in Brighton) the Japanese achieved what is perhaps the greatest feat in the history of the World Cup, beating the Springboks 34-32. A decade later they try again, with the same man at the helm: Eddie Jones, as volcanic as he was then. And given that between August and September Coldplay recorded a historic streak of ten consecutive concerts in that very stadium, the usual Jones wants to make even more noise, in his own way: “This Japan is stronger than the one in 2015. Let’s go to Wembley to do something more historic than Coldplay concerts”. And if South African fans know each other well – proud, aware that rugby and the Springboks represent a real passport to travel the world and a source of pride – the Japanese ones are among the most particular in the world. Meanwhile, paradoxically, their support is much closer to that of football, made up of continuous chants and a constant background, unlike the typical British fan who alternates phases of religious silence with chants and roars in the hottest moments. A report from The Independent said it: “The Japanese fan thinks he can concretely give strength to the team and the players, and for this reason he sings and jumps continuously.” And then the Japanese arrived just as they arrived – tidy, with standard drums and typical clothes – so they leave, after cleaning the stadium, obviously. Furthermore, some groups of fans even organize themselves to learn rehearsals of the opposing national anthems, as a sign of respect.