If you saw my post on Saturday (here) which was all about
day 1 of the Dacia Magic Weekend then you should have a good idea how great of
a day it was.
Me and Michael were very lucky to get VIP tickets for all of
the games on Sunday. These included Catalans Dragons V Huddersfield Giants,
Leigh Centurions V Salford Red Devils and finally Castleford Tigers V Leeds
Rhinos (or as I kept calling them, Captain America). The Tigers V Rhinos was
one of the most of anticipated games of the weekend with fans travelling from
all over England to cheer on their teams.
With it being a Sunday the first kick was at 1pm so me and Michael
thought we would have a look around the Fan zone which was situated in St JamesPark car park. This included options to win a number of large competitions, to buy
replica team shirts and other merch. There was also a stage where they were
doing interviews with cheerleaders and ex players and the chance to win prizes.
There was also the chance to buy hats, shirts and underwear
from ODDBALLS with money going towards the charity that rasies money and awareness for testicular cancer. You could tell that this
was a popular charity with rugby league fans as the odd balls hats were everywhere.
We weren't sure what to expect with our VIP passes but we definitely
weren't expecting the treatment we got. From walking through Milburn reception
where we were greeted and directed up to level 3 where we were shown to the
Heroes Suite. If you are a Newcastle
united fan then you will know that the heroes suite is a big deal and
definitely a perk we weren't expecting. We were given our VIP wrist bands and
our itinerary for the day. When we
walked in to the suite you knew you were in a room with important people this
included chairmen of the rugby clubs, ex players and even one of the directors
of the league.
After some food and drinks we made our way to the directors
box to our seat and let's just say we definitely had the best seats in the
house. With the seat being right in the centre we could see all the action
happen both on the pitch and off. I will say that I've only ever been to one
other rugby league match in my life and I didn't have a clue what was happening
but with the help of Michael I started to get it and, being a girl with a
tactical mind, I started to really get in games.
After watch Catalans Dragons V Huddersfield Giants we
headed back in to the heroes suite and were given little steak pies and chips
which I believe is a tradition of NUFC hospitality. We went out for the 2nd
match of the day which is where the game pace picked up with Leigh Centurions
playing against Salford Red Devils. Leigh Centurions were the underdogs but
they didn't let that stop them from
putting up a good fight even when they lost one of their players through a
tackle that wouldn't have looked out of place in a wrestling ring. This game
definitely had a different pace from the first, you could see how much the
Centurions wanted to win but Salford played the better game and the Salford
fans were loving every moment of it.
Final match of the day was Castleford Tigers V Leeds Rhinos
this was the game that a lot of people were here for. The fans were not let
down and the Tigers fans must have been loving every moment as their team
delivered try after try in the 2nd half. The atmosphere at this game
was crazy the fans from both teams cheered, chanted their team songs and did
what every fan does best and made lots of noise.
I have to say that this day was defiantly a high light of
2017, from getting the VIP treatment to seeing fans from all over the England
coming together to cheer on their own teams but cheer on other teams along the
way.
I would definitely recommend Dacia Magic Weekend to anyone,
you could go with the family with the fan zone entertaining every member of the
family to the half term entertainment (I'm sure we saw a pillow fight in the
middle of the pitch). You can go along with a group friends and soak up the atmosphere
with a beer and some chips.
Even if you didn't get to go to Dacia Magic Weekend you
couldn't have missed the 65,407 fans that were running around Newcastle throughout
the weekend. This is the 3rd highest magic weekend attendance with
all 3 highest attendance being in Newcastle.
* This was a gifted post but all views are my own.