Tag Rugby and Semi-finals, both in one day

Tuesday was a day off from the WRWC for me, though not a day off from ministry. As I'm due to move house soon, I had a meeting fixed that day to induct a new team of chaplains at my local ASDA store where I''ve been Chaplaincy Team Leader for just over a year, and a chaplain for a year before that. As well as finding a new team leader, I'd managed to find two more new chaplains in addition, so hopefully a strengthened team will allow this ministry to grow and flourish into the future.
Returning to Guildford on Wednesday for semi-finals day, I was sad to see that some of the infrastructure around the match pitches had disappeared. I'd seen the beginnings of this before I left, but was sad to see how much had gone. This is because some of the focus now moves to The Stoop in Twickenham, as that is where the top 4 teams now play their games, whilst only the remaining 8 teams play in Guildford. Whilst this is great for those in the top 4, I can't help feeling that this is not good for those who remain here, and it seems partly to undo the positive emphasis at the beginning of the tournament that in this world cup everyone has things to play for right up until the last day, unlike those perhaps more usual tournaments when a team or player goes home as soon as they've been knocked out.
At 1pm a number of people from local churches arrived to take part in a Community Tag Rugby session. This was something that Dave and I had been involved in planning with the RFU alongside the chaplaincy. Originally a wider community day, it had turned into a Faith Communities session somewhere along the way. This proved to be good fun, and was for all ages and genders; and all who attended where able to stay and watch today's 4 matches in Guildford for free.
Most of the afternoon was spent around the match pitches, talking with volunteers, staff and spectators, as well as watching some of the rugby - this was particularly important for me as I'd promised one of my pool teams that I'd do so, as I've got to know a number of their players (this was the team who invited me to their team meeting in week 1 to introduce the idea of chaplaincy). Part of the evening was spent manning the Oasis and part in the bar watching the England match on TV with a number of the squads and volunteers.