It’s my favourite time of year again. It’s early February, it’s raining, it’s cold, it’s grey.
But in just a couple of hours I am going to be totally and utterly gripped by the opening match of this year’s Six Nations.
By far my favourite sport and my only appointment TV of the year.
And this year my excitement is intensified by having a ticket to Twickenham for the England-Italy match later this month. Not my first time at Twickenham, but my first live Six Nations match.
Anticipation is building.
The beer of choice for this afternoon’s festivities is Elvis Juice by Brewdog. A viciously citrus 6.5% brute of an IPA.
Anyone else as excited as me?
Me too, although being half way round the world, the Scotland game starts at 11pm and the England game at 1am. Still watching both live (well on the TV anyway) though.
Beer of choice for tonight’s games are a couple of bottles of Cornish IPA from M&S (they are actually St. Austall Brewery, but M&S bottle them and bring them in to Singapore !!)
So who do you predict ?
I think England may just clinch it – I don’t think they will beat Ireland in Dublin, but think the Irish will drop points in some if their earlier games. I just hope that it doesn’t come down to England winning on bonus points even if beaten by Ireland.
On recent form I would have predicted England but given that we have neither Vunipola on the field and we’re also missing the enormously dependable Robshaw, I’m feeling rather less sure about that.
Mind you, Ireland is missing Sexton and Wales are down one or two very useful players so maybe it all evens out.
I’m interested to see how well Scotland do this year. While I don’t want them to do particularly well, they were quite the revelation last year. France were a total mess and I don’t think Italy deserved the result they ended up with.
Mind you, they never do to my mind. I love Italy.
Cornish IPA is pretty decent as I recall. And hopefully the match results will make your late night worth it!
Yup. I’m probably just as excited as you, Scarlet. I may have a stinking cold but I’ll be at Twickenham this afternoon, cheering for as long as my throat lasts. It could be a close game – England’s makeshift pack ought to be under a lot of pressure.
It’s a busy few days for me. England v France today, Richard Thompson at Cadogan Hall tomorrow and the Transatlantic Sessions at the Festival Hall on Monday. After a quiet January (only one gig – The Bible at Under The Bridge), this is more like it!
You’re at England’s opening Six Nations game??!!!!! Oh man, I am SOOOOO jealous right now. It doesn’t even console me that your beer will be shite 🙂
If France haven’t pulled themselves together since last year we should be fine. But I’m always a little bit wary of them, they so often beat us by one or two points, which then denies us the title.
But sometimes when I’m down I remind myself how we totally and utterly demolished them in 2014. Even though we didn’t win the tournament, it was a brilliant game.
I also only managed one gig in January – the brilliant Martha Wainwright – but my February looks nowhere near as good as yours so far.
I won’t be drinking the beer, that’s how ill I feel.
The trouble with France is that you just don’t know how they’ll perform. As long as the scrum is sound and the French forwards don’t make much headway in the loose, England should be fine. The lineout has to be a strength with Itoje, Launchbury and Lawes in it (the French could struggle to win their own ball, let alone steal England’s) and the backs worked well all last year against better teams than France.
RT is reliably brilliant as are the Transatlantic Sessions folks – I catch both acts whenever they come to London and always have a great night. The trouble with my February is that I don’t have any more gigs planned at present – the next tickets I’ve got are for Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman in the middle of March. I need to plan ahead better.
I’m very excited. A foot injury has made me an immobile mardy-arse for the past three weeks, but I’m going down to the rugby club with the rest of the ladies’ team to watch the matches this afternoon, which should cheer me right up.
I’m in a slight quandry though: although I’m hoping for some ‘free-flowing, running rugby’, I might just settle for a ‘kicking war of attrition’, as beers are £1.50 a pint in each match until the first try is scored.
Hang on, having thought about it, lots of ‘heroic last-ditch’ tackles. That’s what we need.
Oh, and Scarlet – my brother’s at the England match, too, the bastard. On a corporate jolly from a work supplier. At least he is actually a rugby player, and not a disinterested banker.
I reckon you should be hoping for free-flowing running rugby – and I suspect Eddie Jones’ pre-match comments have been intended to encourage the French to try it. In a war of attrition, England’s pack might find itself rather stretched, especially in the last 20 minutes.
The other thing I’m really hoping is that neither side has anyone red-carded because of the pressure on the ref to enforce the high tackle rule. That could just ruin the game as a spectacle. No matter how heroically England performed against Argentina, and it was stomach-churningly tense to watch, it spoiled the game as a spectacle when Daly was sent off.
Get your round in first!
Bread of Heaven
Bread of Heaven
Coming for to carry me hooooome
Being half Welsh (Land of My Fathers) and half English (Land of My Mum and Me) I expect to win the championship this year. I’m going to the pub in one shirt today and another tomorrow. It gets a bit more complicated next weekend though.
When I lived in West Wales that last line of the song was “Feed me till I want no more”.
In Aberystwyth it was “Bread of Evans”, on account of Evans were the biggest bakery in the town.
Local connoisseurs of baked goods would have known that James y Bara were the best bakers in town. Last time I visited there their shop was somebody else’s.
I still have shivers and salivate at the memory of their Belgian Buns.
Well, England were rubbish but still won, buggering up my pub sweep. Scotland were brilliant.
The bad old days may have gone about dominating game for the first 60 minutes and then losing in the last 20 has been put to rest. I fancy us for the Calcutta Cup
I’m not I fancy us for the CC, but I think we could be massively competitive.
If nothing, the defence know how to organize and tackle, and with a kicker like Laidlaw, you can hope for a steady ticking over of the scoreboard.
The backline looks safe as well. Solid, with at least two players capable of moments of magic. Immensely heartening.
and isn’t Hogg the best fullback We’ve had for years? The lad is a shoe-in for the Lion’s tour
The opening couple of results, close affairs both, are encouraging.
However, I suspect I will yet again miss most of the action – it’s just too technical isn’t it?
It’s not as if I don’t like the sport; Redruth today, Pirates tomorrow, and I’m writing the completely unauthorised history of the long deceased, and not-entirely lovable – they were horrible – local rugby club.
I like it muddy, very, very muddy.
Mind, the 6 Nations is likely to be a whole lot more interesting than this year’s Premier League…..come back, Leicester, we miss you SOOOO much.
England were very very fortunate, France could have had 2 or 3 more tries. Unfortunately I doubt they will play that poorly 2 weeks in a row.
Talk of Ire v Eng being Grand Slam decider ended after 1 game of 15!
Hmmm.
One of those games where being an England supporter was enormously nerve wracking. I’d imagine the atmosphere at Twickenham wasn’t entirely comfortable.
Wales will have watched that game and had their confidence boosted for the next weekend, I suspect.
And my heart broke for Italy. It was so brilliant to see them leading a game for a while. We all knew it couldn’t last but I wish it had.
I suspected that Scotland were going to be interesting to watch this year but I’m not sure I foresaw that win.
The Wales result was a relief. But the first 15 minutes – somewhat worrying!
Couple of pretty decent games yesterday and I’m not sure today’s will match them much in terms of competitiveness.
However…
I AM ON MY WAY TO TWICKENHAM!!!!!!!
And I’m hopelessly overexcited. Be very relieved you’re not with me.