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It's that time of year again when the Northern Hemisphere rugby fans get their hopes out and prepare themselves for whatever might happen. I reckon this year it will be a great series but, as ever, we'll see. For me, it kicks off tomorrow in Twickenham when my home team (Wales) battle it out against England. I reckon it will be close but I have an inkling that England will use the home advantage to pinch it.
France will be out to pull themselves up from the World Cup debacle and Italy will be desperate to build on their better game play they have been showing over the past couple of tournaments. Meanwhile Ireland are struggling a bit and Scotland look well prepared. Wales have a lot to do with a new manager and coach and England are, of course, riding high from their recovery in the World Cup.
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hmmmm..... I pick Scotland ftw!
I dont know, Wales and Scotland would be my sentimental favourites, but the Frogs and the Poms are always hard to beat.
Yeah, I agree with you andro...
But I've decided to go the optimist's route
C'mon Ireland!!
Ok, C'mon The Emerald Isle!
hehhehe
I bet Mr Dent celebrated that win!
W00t!
Wow, the Welsh and the Irish both got up! 
Now all I need is for the Scots to get up also. 
Yeah, I'll bet the booze was flowing wherever Arthur was watching it.
hehehe yeah!
Who knows, this might be the time of the underdogs....
What a weekend! Unfortunately I didn't get tickets for Twickenham so watched the Ireland/Italy, England/Wales matches in my local hostelry. As you can imagine, the first half of Eng/Wales was so dire (for me) and the piss-taking was severe and pityless. The second half was an absolute blinder and again the piss-taking was even more severe and may possibly result in a war-crimes trial for it's cruelty to the English.
Other than that, I thought the Italians battled hard against the Irish (they are getting much better) and I must admit I expected a ruthless game from the French (which happened). A great opening weekend with (I believe) more to come...
and yes, a few sherberts did cross the threshold - Sunday morning was, I must admit, a little bit difficult.
ROFL! war-crimes trial! hhahahahahh
Hang on, the French had a game too? Who did they play? I didn't see any results for them
Glad you had a good time Arthur, sounds like fun.
And deezee, the French defeated the Scots 27-6. Bugggeerrrrr.
D'oh!!
Terrible score line too
Yeah, I think the halftime score was 17-6, so the Scots didn't score in the second half.
oops....
France beat Ireland 26-21
Check out this headline: Ireland are not that shit anymore, but still lose
Oh dear, and we were goin for Ireland, weren't we ??
I loved this last sentence in that article............
The French Revolution welcome England next, and I fear the worst, especially the thought of Clerc and Heymans running at the KFC-engorged Vainikolo.
HAHAHAHA Yeah!
Well England certainly showed how good Italy can be these days. A score of 19-23 (Italy/England) is close, very close.
For me, one of the best matches of the 6 nations is always Wales vs Scotland. This time it finished in favour of Wales but it was still a good match. I just got back home from Cardiff and it was a brilliant weekend. We had a blinder of a time with all the Scots lads down for the match - excellent...
Wow... sounds like great fun Arthur....
Must be nice living where all the action is!
I hardly live at the centre of the action but close enough.
Using the trains:- Cardiff (for the Millenium Stadium) is about 4 hours Twickenham is only 2.5 hours. Murrayfield (Where Scotland play) is about 6 hours. Stade de France (Paris) is about 6 hours.
Croke Park (Dublin) and Rome need to be flown and take anything between 4 and 6 hours depending on connections.
Hey, given I'd have to take a plane and spend a few thousand dollars in the process, that's pretty much the centre to me!
Or I could walk for 3 minutes and watch it on 50-odd inch wide screen in my local pub or fall out of bed and watch it on my own TV...
Don't have that even!
what - a TV?
TV I have.... it just doesn't show the right stuff
Wales vs Italy at the Millenium this Saturday - great match. The Italians can't drink pints of beer, never mind, they can play a good bit of Rugby and they are a very sociable group of supporters... Good score for Wales too 47-8.
Wow!
That was a complete thrashing!
You wouldn't think so for the first half. Italy were dangerous. They even got the first try of the game and it was a blinder.
Scotland crashed out to Ireland and England played a very good game to beat France. The Six nations is now wide open. Wales are on top with 3 wins out of three but I am not even thinking about celebrating yet (although I'll celebrate anyway - hic!). Our next game is against Ireland in Croke Park and that will not be easy by any stretch of anyones imagination and the final game for Wales is vs France at the Millenium (I will be there again...!) . All very dodgy, France are immense when thay get their shit together.
Anyway back to Ireland vs Wales A quote from Eddy O'Sullivan, the Irish coach:
“Both teams like to run and if it’s a dry day at Croke Park, it will be all bets are off and a great spectacle.”
I happen to agree with him and am a bit pissed off that my efforts to make arrangements for a weekend in Dublin have fallen through.
Here is a link to the Six nations Web-site for the info...
Damn! I'd love to see the Ireland v Wales match.
Might try and watch it at a pub
Is it next week?
Two weeks time. Ireland will be defending their "Triple Crown" so it is seen in the Irish community as a big match. I guess you need to find an Irish Bar in Sydney...
Okay, now that would just be scary!
Time difference would be the problem deezee.
Generally when we watch live footy games (of any code) from Europe, they are on in the wee small hours of the morning. (here in Aust).
Which is prime time for me!
hehehe
I am now definitely looking forward to Saturday with many thanks and praises to my old mate Denver (that's his nickname, after Denver Sluice in East Anglia, he has the same ability as the sluice to hold his liquid and he comes from that area, or at least his Dad used to live there).
He weasled a couple of tickets through a mate, who's cousin is married to a girl whos father knows a bloke he'd met on holiday etc... Well I don't know the source but they were acquired for a donation to a charity and appear to be legitamate so I have just booked good old Ryanair to Dublin for Friday morning and we are there for the weekend. I have no idea what the fleapit hotel will be like and judging by my last visit to Dublin I had no recollection of what the hotel was like anyway.
All I know is that I will be at (or near) Croke Park on Saturday and that I am anticipating the best game of rugby since ever... If Wales beat Ireland they will win the Triple Crown (to do that they have to beat England, Scotland and Ireland) and then it will be France at the Millenium for the final game (for which I've already got tickets and feel a bit guilty because Denver doesn't have one - although he's 50/50 Irish and Isle of Man...) And that might be the Grand Slam. Oh dear! let's hope I'm not going to fall here, I hope the lads are as confident as my anticipation is!
Yaaaaay!!!
That's excellent Mr Dent!
I'm so excited for you
And GOOOO WALES!
Go the Celts!!...
hahahaha
W00T!!! Scotland beat England!
And Wales won!!!!
*hopping around the house* woo hoo!!!
I guess we shouldn't expect to hear from Mr Dent anytime soon....
Well, two out of three of the Celtic countries won.
Just hope that Wales can beat the Frogs next weekend.
Good on the Scots as well.
Arthur is probably still in a Dublin bar having his Guinness and oysters.
heh heh Yeah...
Meanwhile, I think there's France v Italy tonight
Yeah, that's him in the left front of the pic. (holding up the trophy)
Or maybe thay's him with the ball in the third pic on Scrumbag
HAHAHAHAHA
Me thinks he's still working off that major hangover he'd have acquired over the weekend
Or he's in the slammer..
ooooooo
Good point!
I hardly live at the centre of the action but close enough.
LOL Arthur. The nearest I get to an away game now would be the Shed's v the Bronko's at the Gold Coast but be buggered if I'd want to go to that shit heap. All else needs a plane.
Well what a week. Dublin was great and Andro has ruined it by suggesting Guinness with Oysters. What a waste of Guinness!!!.
Had a really busy week and then it was Cardiff again, from Friday through till Sunday. What a game, what an atmosphere a the the Millenium. I have been to some big rugby games in Europe, South Africa Australia and New Zealand and I have never,ever experienced an atmosphere like this one. The French were shitting themselves, and it showed with one or two of their backs doing things early on in the game that only nerves could account for. Having said that, they settlind in nicely and both teams fought it out well. The big difference was Wales' defence - completely impervious whereas France dominated a lot of play until the last quarter. Eventually the 29-12 score line was about right.
So, Wales not only win the Six Nations Championship, they win the Grand-Slam (beat all the other teams) for the second time in 3 years. Hopefully the new coach (Kiwi) Mike Gatland is going to shake off the world-cup debacle and turn Wales into the world-beating team thay they are capable of being. Roll on South Africa!
W00T!!
I dunno how I completely missed the fact that Wales won the whole thing - but -
YAAAAYYYYY!!!!
And... errrm.... what's happening in South Africa??
Andro has ruined it by suggesting Guinness with Oysters.
Guinness and Oysters is a marriage made in heaven.
Obviously Arthur doesn't like oysters.
I'm happy that Wales won though..
You are right there. Oysters are food for Oyster Catchers (a bird) plus other natural predators, not humans - yeuch! Guiness on the other hand is compatible with any other foodstuffs.
South Africa is where Wales will be touring later this year. Hopefully they can only keep on improving to hit what the pundits are calling "world class".
The Six nations finished as follows:-
1 - Wales, 2 - England, 3 - France, 4 - Ireland, 5 - Scotland and 6 - Italy. I can't help feeling sorry for Italy but they showed that they are not the dummies that they used to be and are improving all the time.
Ugh - oysters. Completely agree with Mr Dent there!
I see the BBC graded Wales with an A+
The remarks for Scotland are funny!
Oysters are food for Oyster Catchers
Ugh - oysters. Completely agree with Mr Dent there!
Peasants.
I think all those grading remarks were funny!
They were too!
The 2009 Six Nations championship got underway this weekend.
England beat Italy (unconvincingly)
Ireland had a good win against France
Wales gave Scotland a hammering, although the scoreline was rather generous to Scotland.
Yeah, that's the impression I got about England from Will Carling's twitterings. ( http://twitter.com/willcarling )
...And it's well into it's second week of the 2010 6 Nations.
France look awesome. Wales are struggling a bit, as are Ireland. Scotland are playing well but can't win. England are playing like spastics but have nicked all the luck off the Irish and poor old Italy have raised their game to the point where England (with all the luck of the Irish) only just about squeaked in a win against them.
Was at the Millenium Stadium on Saturday for Wales v Scotland. For me, this is always the best match of the 6 Nations amd it was an absolute cracker. I paid £60 for a seat but wasted £59 of it by being sat on the edge all through the match. The socialising was good on Friday and also on Saturday (always is with Scotland), given a nice edge by Wales eventually winning 31-24. Wales came from behind - it was 21-24 at 79 minutes and 40 seconds, a penalty and one second later it was 24-24. They re-started and the time went over 80 minutes, everyone expected Scotland to kick to touch on the re-start from the penalty and finish the match as a draw but they didn't, Wales picked up the ball and run from their 22metre line for a final try and conversion. Scotland lost by the try and conversion - best game of rugby I watched in many years - even the Bokky, Wally and Kiwi pundits wheeled in by the BBC were amazed.
... and as usual the Reds managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Looks like it's going to be the same again this year. Only thing worse was it was against the Waratahs. Only thing worse than that was seeing Turncoat Barnes in a blue jumper. Only thing worse than that was the dirty sellout was allowed to walk from the field as opposed to exiting on a stretcher.
Who are you tipping Mr Dent?
And Ruski.... you psycho
France...
Wow. Really?
Interesting....
One of the Welsh team had a few beers (in celebration, as you do) and got himself into a bit of trouble
hahahahaha
A buggy!! It's a marvel it didn't just collapse under his weight!
It starts again tonight. It just so happens I'm conveniently working in the Bristol office today and will be attending the match at the Millenium Stadium this evening. It will be the first real test for my ankle... Not to mention that the game is Wales versus England...
Nice! Enjoy Arthur!!
And watch that ankle!
Huh! Wales lost. England slowed the game to a snails pace and dominated possession through rucking. It was however the right game against Wales, who dominated play whenever it opened up, but never got enough possession to keep the ball moving. Despite that it was a good Friday night in Cardiff and my ankle didn't give up at any stage.
19-26
Woo hoo!
Ummm... that's for the ankle
And the trip to Edinburgh last weekend was pretty good too - Edinburgh is a great place to be on a Friday and Saturday night, especially when they are playing Wales... Although the rugby was a bit on the flat side. Scotland were forced into error after error and the score of 6-24 was about right. At one stage, Wales had one of their locks and the full-back in the sin-bin and Scotland still only managed one penalty kick (3 points) in that period.
In other news, England thrashed Italy off the park 10-59, although Italy did score their compulsory try (they even got one against the All-Blacks). France just about managed to beat Ireland, despite the Irish getting 3 tries to 1 for France, they lost (to France) 22-25, I didn't watch the match but I can imagine that the Irish were a bit pissed off giving away a ton of penalties. My money is on England by a whisker for the Six Nations Championship this year because their match against France is at Twickenham. Although, they are away to Ireland in their last match so it's not a very safe bet but I balance that by the fact that they have a huge points difference from their match with Italy.
I miss Edinburgh.... Must go there again. Without dad and sis preferably
Rugby matches aside, Edinburgh is quite a nice place, especially during the festival. Although the summer months (when the festival is on) means that the midges are out in force.
It may help if you sing this song..(to be sung to the tune of "Bonny Dundee")
THE MIDGE SONG -- Sheila Douglas
Did ye hear o the settler wha cam tae the glen
An bocht the laird's castle for a wee but an ben
Pit in central heatin and painted it braw
But he couldnae get rid o the midges at aa
They bit aa his fingers, they bit aa his toes
They bit knees and elbows, they bit ears and nose
They bit every bit that the blighters could bite
An they kept up their bitin baith mornin an night
He tried creams and lotions o every kind
He tried every remedy that he could find
But it never detered them whene'er they zoomed in
Tho he even tried rubbin his hurdies wi gin
He scratched an he clawed, he clawed an he scratched
Till pairts o his body were soon needin patched
The midges came back an they bit him some more
An he clawed in some places he'd no clawed afore
He blew smoke upon them an sprayed them wi turps
But that only led to a few farts and burps
He couldnae get sleepin because o the itch
So he tried oot a spell that he got fae a witch
He cursed them all but an he cursed them all ben
He cursed them the lenghth an the breadth o the glen
He cursed them in Latin, Swahili and Dutch
But the midges spoke Gaelic an didnae care much
When his posh freens cam northward tae fish an tae shoot
They hardly got started when they had tae scoot
The midges cam in, in their battle formations
An the glen soon resounded wi loud exclamations
They ran thro the heather, they ran thro the gorse
The midges cam after them, out in full force
They ran roon in circles an in zig-zag lines
An last seen were headin strach doon the M9
The settler went back tae his posh but an ben
An sat doon an thocht whit he could dae then
As he doctored his midge bites wi a bottle o malt
He lamented his fate, felt it wisnae his fault
But he up sticks an left on the very next train
An swore he'd no come tae the Hielans again
But the midges were mournin all thro the pinewoods
For they'd voted the settler their favourite food
So it's no more forever noo doon in the glen
For strange are the ways o midges an men
They set off in dozens stracht doon the M1
Tae seek oot that settler wha'd gien them such fun
They socht him in Yorkshire, they socht him in Kent
They asked aa the bees an wasps which way he went
One day he'll wake up all bitten an sore
An he'll never get rid o those midges no more.
.
Or there's this one, sung by the late great Kenneth McKellar..(whom I've met)..
oh dear
Last weekend was a bit unusual. Wales (just about) beat Ireland, England were put to task by the Scots but the bastards won and amazingly Italy beat France. Next weekend is "super Saturday". A rather jazzy name for having all three fixtures on one day instead of a Saturday/Sunday. Hopefully England will lose by a massive score to Ireland and Wales will hammer France (in Paris, just after they have lost to Italy and are extremely pissed off so that's unlikely), then Wales will win the 6 Nations... I'm going to Paris with Mrs Dent and a couple of friends so it should be a good weekend.
Good luck Mr Dent!!
And since I was put on a new-south-welshman list today, I shall support Wales too
Well if the Scots can't win it, I'll go for Wales as well...
Just make sure the frogs don't win it..
I'll pass your message on to the Welsh team...
Oopsh
France 28----Wales 9..
However the Scots 21 downed Italy 8..
and Oireland 24 def the Poms 8...
There was good rugby everywhere. It's a pity that the results weren't that good though (for Wales that is...) Still we had a good time in Paris and managed to lose the girls for the whole of Saturday to enjoy a bit of a blast in the bars. I can't say Mrs Dent was very impressed when I returned to the hotel at about 4am. Still they had a good night as well and no doubt squandered a heap of cash in some over-priced clothes shops in the afternoon.
Roll on next year...!
Well, I guess you guys are even then....
We will never be even. What she spends on one pair of shoes; which judging by how much they cost, must be made of mammoth leather with pure gold and inch-thick platinum plating and crusted with diamonds and ermine lining, is more than I'd ever spend on going to all the 6 Nations matches, including booze, food, travel, accommodation and tickets...
Holy crap
Seriously??
Would you pay £350 for a pair of shoes that you might wear 4 times before claiming they are no longer suitable?
The most expensive footwear I buy are Birkenstocks and I wear them everyday until the soles wear out, after which I get them resoled for a fraction of the price.
So.... No
Where have you been all my life....?
Either in Singapore or Australia?
I don't think she got the meaning of the comment. Never mind.
You think I didn't?
