Romanian halfback Florin Surugiu turned a crushing defeat into a personal victory by proposing to his girlfriend on the famous Wembley turf on Monday (NZT).
The 30-year-old played the final 12 minutes of the 44-10 World Cup Pool D defeat by Six Nations champions Ireland and then stayed on the pitch to propose.
His unsuspecting partner had to undergo the very public proposal but luckily the record crowd of 89,267 had mostly filed out of the stadium.
Fortunately, she said 'yes'.
Surugiu went ahead with the proposal against the advice of the team's national coach, Welshman Lynn Howells.
"I tried to advise him not to but there you go," said Howells.
"She said yes. It's too romantic for me but I'm sure she enjoyed every minute of it."
Surugiu's showman-like proposal in the wake of a high-profile defeat echoed that of former French football coach Raymond Domenech.
Instead of answering questions on a TV program about whether he would resign in the aftermath of a 2-0 defeat to Italy, which saw France exit Euro 2008 at the group stage, he instead proposed to his girlfriend Estelle Denis, who worked for the channel at the time.
A visibly embarrassed Denis declined to give him an immediate answer.
Watch the video to see the proposal
AFP / 3 News
