Market Friday: Another Nail-Biting Game at Kings Park - SHARKS vs MUNSTER

Today is #MarketFriday, a project initiated by @dswigle, and this post is my contribution to this project for this week.

To learn more about this project and participate, visit today's post by @dswigle.

I missed publishing a post last week Friday. It was a hectic day and I couldn't get to everything...lol. But here I am now.

But the rest of last weekend was quite exciting.

If you remember, I published a post about our night at the rugby two weeks ago...

Well, guess what? Last weekend we went to see another live match.

It was also at Kings Park, but this time, the A team of the SHARKS was in action. The last game we went to, was a game between the SHARKS (B team) and another South African franchise, the PUMAS.

This time, it was an international game in the URC series, where the SHARKS were facing MUNSTER, a team from Ireland.

We stuck to the habit of parking the car at the Suncoast Casino, walking to Kings Park Stadium. It's a distance of about 2 KM (a 20 to 25-minute walk one way).

The reason for parking at the Suncoast Casino?

• It is safe due to good security.
• It is free.
• We get the opportunity to go for a nice walk before and after the game.

If you want to see more about our walk between Suncoast Casino and Kings Park, you can see it here.

SHARKS vs MUNSTER.

Okay, let me share this with you first. We didn't really plan on going to this match.

On Friday, I received a phone call from my wife. A supplier to the company my wife is working for was willing to sponsor us with two tickets to Saturday's game. He wanted to know if we would be interested...

Would we be interested...? Silly question! That's a no-brainer...LOL!

We decided to leave early on Saturday afternoon, as I wanted to have a relaxed walk while taking some nice shots of our walk.

The game was scheduled for 6:15 pm. We arrived at the parking area at the Suncoast Casino just after 4 pm. We started our walk to the stadium and arrived early after a nice walk, taking many photos along the way.

Now, let me show you where we were already scoring financially...

Yes, R80.00 for parking at the stadium. At the time of writing this post, the exchange rate is R18.29 for $1.00.

That means the cost of parking would have been equal to $4.38.

I just smiled and we kept walking toward the ticket offices.

To get to the counters, you walk through an entrance hall, with windows on both sides. From here you can look down into Shark Tank Shop.

And of course, we're at the SHARK TANK (home of the SHARKS)... How could there not be an image of Sharky in one of these windows...lol?

And next to Sharky's image, a nice outfit is on display!

We walked out to stroll around before going inside the stadium. We stopped and I asked my wife to hold the tickets for me to take a photo...

As you can see... R90.00 per ticket. That means for the two tickets it would be R180.00 ($9.84). If we had parked at the stadium, it would have been another R80.00 which would have taken the total cost up to R260.00 ($14.21)... Yet, it didn't cost us a dime!

Outside gate 9 (where we normally enter), people were still gathering casually for conversation as it was still early.

Once inside, we walked the final stretch to ramp 5 where we were supposed to go up toward our seats on the east stand.

Gong up the ramp, starting to gain height, and looking out over this "entertainment" area that is always camped off with some stalls where you can get something to eat and drink. To the right is one of the parking areas of the stadium, slowly busy filling up.

A little higher up and we get a better view from where we can see the rest of the entertainment area with another entrance gate below us (to the left) and more parking areas in the background busy filling up.

We were at our seats at about 5:15 pm.

I took the following three shots of the stadium as we could see it in front of us. We were seated almost at the halfway line, with the main stand on the opposite side of the field.

To our left, is (what we know as) a box that always gets my attention. As a matter of interest, the Afrikaans word is "losie". I looked it up in the dictionary to find the proper English word and found where it is described as a stage box.

This box in particular (on ground level) belongs to the Illovo Company. They have a whole entertainment area for the guests outside. They even have a pool if people want to spend time in the water.

That blows my mind... Who wants to be in a pool when you are there to watch a rugby game? Yet, I have often seen people sitting in the water, especially during games in the afternoon...

At the bottom left, you can see the television cameraman being ready for action, waiting for the game to start.

Focusing more on the undercover area...

Zooming out to get the full picture.

A while later I took the next shot of the sunset behind the main stand.

On the opposite side of the field, in front of the main stand, they were doing a television interview with Neil Powell, the director of rugby of the SHARKS. Neil Powell is the guy in the black shorts and T-shirt...

Players started coming onto the field to warm up before the game. Here, Curwin Bosch is working on his kicking skills.

In the next shot, Boeta Chamberlain and Curwin Bosch are aiming for the posts.

Makazole Mapimpi working on his side-step...

Neil Powell, the director of rugby physically ran around with his team...throwing the ball around for his team to properly warm up.

Neil Powell has been the coach for the South African Sevens Springbok team and they had great results under him. He came to the SHARKS at the beginning of this season.

And then Sharky came out...lol!

Then our captain, Sia Kolisi came out. He is also captain of the Springboks. He enjoyed a special entrance with his two children as it was his last game for the SHARKS before he is going overseas to play for an overseas team.

Yet, he had a serious injury to his knee during the game and now it seems that he might not even be ready to lead the Springboks in the upcoming world cup competition.

Just behind him, Thomas du Toit, aka "The Tank" (weighing in at 134 KG), also came onto the field with a special entrance with his little one. It was also his last game at the SHARKS before leaving to join an overseas team for some time.

Then Curwin Bosch started the game...

The SHARKS dominated the first half and were leading by 19 - 3 by halftime.

After half-time, MUNSTER was to start the game and I couldn't believe how lucky I was to get three of my favorite players in one shot, right in front of me.

From left to right: Werner Kok, Thomas du Toit, and Gerbrandt Grobler, waiting for the MUNSTER kick-off.

The SHARKS scored again with a penalty and we were leading by 22 - 3.

But then MUNSTER came back with a vengeance and it turned into a nail-biting game, ending in a draw at 22 - 22.

After the match...walking down the ramp, looking out over one of the parking areas behind the stadium.

We walked back to the car, laughing and trying to wind down and relax again after the excitement of the game...lol.

And that's it for today folks! An exciting, fun-filled, $14.21 evening that didn't cost us a dime, except for the gas to get there.

Thank you for reading my post!

I do appreciate it!