Olympic Stadium -( photo from mobile phone )

On Saturday I found myself heading into Olympic Stadium for the Angkor 10s Rugby Tournament. With tickets to the ANZ “corporate box”, this was the first time  I have been to the stadium since I moved to Cambodia.  A piece of classic Van Moly Vann concrete architecture it really is quite impressive and a real shame the local authorities have let it go. The outer car parking areas are awash with guys playing soccer in bare feet and youngsters milling around and then inside the pitch is in fair condition. The ringed surrounding layers of concrete seating give off the impression of an open cut mine and there is  gravel running track that needs a top dressing.

Members of the Asian Rhinos ( Hong Kong). They were the eventual winners.

Teams had flown in from all over Asia; Honk Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Laos, The Philippines and Thailand. Clearly they were here for a good time. With 15 minute halves, it wasn’t long before they could hop into a cold beer. The pitch was a bit soggy but there were some great runaway tries and the best moment was seeing the mighty Cambodian National team ( all tiny little khmer guys ) get up against the local Sisowath Knights (all huge expats ). This brought the stadium down and the khmer lads were ecstatic with their win. The ANZ box was well set up with a bbq by Dan Meats and sponsored by Tiger so the beer was cold and plentiful. I only stayed for a couple of hours as I had Srey Touche’s 22nd birthday to go but it was alot of fun.

Full report here