Rugby fan proposes to girlfriend with engraved stone at Cardiff stadium

London -  A student’s love for his girlfriend has been set in stone - after he proposed to her on a personalised paver at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

Lifelong rugby fan Mark Roberts had bought the engraved granite slab from the Welsh Rugby Union a year ago to surprise his girlfriend Abbie Cockerill.

The engraved granite slab is on a wall within the stadium grounds and reads, “Marry Me Abbie, Love Mark.”

 21-year-old Roberts is from Portfield, near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire and had intended to pop the question at Wales’ match against the Barbarians earlier this month.

But he said that a steward had prevented him from entering the area where the new pavers were.

It was another week before his partner eventually saw the marriage proposal, and he could get down on one knee.

“I told her it was for her birthday. She wasn’t expecting the proposal at all and just expected it to say ‘happy birthday’,” the BBC quoted Roberts as saying.

“(When she saw it) there were a lot of, ‘Oh my gods’ and ‘is this happening?’”

“For the briefest of moments I wondered if I’d done the right thing and pushed it a bit far with the rugby theme, but when she started smiling I knew I was in the clear,” he said.

Roberts said that 19-year-old Cockerill who is from Haverfordwest, accepted his proposal moments later.

“I’ve always loved rugby, but until we met Abbie had never seen a game,” Roberts said.

“The first game she watched was Wales v England in 2008. Since then she has become a regular at the Millennium Stadium for Wales matches and we are season ticket holders at the

(Cardiff) Blues,” he said.

Roberts, who is reading a degree in exploration geology at Cardiff University and Cockerill, who is studying pharmacy, are intending to get married when they complete their studies in two

years’ time.

“I knew Mark had bought a brick but he told me it said happy birthday and I believed him,” Cockerill said.

“When we got there, he told me to close my eyes and when I opened them he was on one knee and proposed.

“That’s when I read the engraving. It was really romantic. I’m really happy but I still can’t believe it all,” she added.