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Wallabies welcomed by "home" crowd

Written by Paul Reid
Monday, 03 September 2007
A predominantly French crowd of 8,000 spectators welcomed the visiting Australian team with a chorus of 'Waltzing Matilda' on Sunday when the Wallabies held an open training session at the Stade Yves-Monior in Montpellier. The Wallabies drew a huge cheer when they ran on to the ground and several spectators held up 'Welcome' signs as Australia's unofficial national anthem was played over the public address system. The crowd quickly joined in, with some spectators also waving Australian flags. A brass band dressed in red and white added to the party atmosphere as the crowd applauded almost every training drill. With the temperature in the high 20s, the players said they felt like they were playing a home game, especially as the cheers went up whenever someone scored a try in the warm-up game of touch rugby. "Guys were getting applause so much that everyone just wanted to get across the line and score that try," said Wallaby wing Drew Mitchell. "At once stage Matty Dunning and Stephen Moore both got touched about four times each and still kept going just to get that applause. "To get 9,000 people here, no-one expected that at all. And to run out there and get the reception we did was fantastic." Much to the amusement of his team-mates, wing Lote Tuqiri (AUS) drew some of the biggest cheers when he waved to each of the packed grandstands at the start of the session. "He (Tuqiri) was telling the boys 'watch this, watch this' and proceeded to go to the next grandstand. We'd say 'jambon' (French for ham). We were really yelling that out to him, just hamming it up for the crowd," Mitchell joked. !