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A weekend without 6 nations!
18/02/2011
According to my research, over a million fans made the trip to Cardiff, Twickenham, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris and Rome last year to watch a '6 nations' game; on average that's a crowd of 70,351 per game.
I was at the Wales v England game for the first game of this years tournament, horrendous traffic on the way down, enjoyed a few beers after, before having to walk home due to the lack of taxi's! (Talk is that it will be the last Friday night game for a while!). My mates said the same about Twickenham last week.. Cardiff was just as packed due to the fantastic Rugby League Magic Weekend, despite Wales playing away in Scotland! We don't complain though - we expect it, kinda learnt to love it. It's part of the experience.
But this week, the 6 nations is on a break. Everything will be back to 'normal'. Most of the cities mentioned above will feel like ghost towns in comparison to 'international weekend', such is the popularity of the tournament, especially this year, with the World Cup looming.
Whilst I, like most avid fans, am disappointed there's no rugby this weekend, (although I will be catching Blues v Leinster on sat!), I know the players will be quite glad. Apart from 'Mad Dog', Englands captain Lewis Moody, who is desperate to play and could turn out for Bath this weekend. There have already been some massive 'hits' in the first two rounds of rugby. I think almost half the Scotland squad were on the 'injured list' after their encounter with Wales. A couple of days of TLC, nursing their wounds, before preparing for another battle next Saturday and Sunday for all the teams. (see interview with Jamie for more on this).
The 'table' has a pretty predictable look about it at this stage. England and France at the top, same points (4 each) , but England...or should I say Ashton (he has 6 of Englands 10)..with double the amount of tries than France! Scotland and Italy bringing up the rear with zero points each. It is the 'big one' next Saturday, probably the decider. In-form England against a team that the great NZ outside half, Andrew Mehrtens, said of: "The French are predictably unpredictable". More true this year than ever. Brilliant in patches against Scotland, really weird against Ireland! Hardly anyone can beat France at their best. But not even their coach knows how they will play sometimes, and they are not often at their best at Twickenham. France snuck it 12-10 last year at the Stade de France - Martin Johnson will want revenge this year.
I'm writing this on Friday morning, I will spend the rest of the day working out what I'm going to do with this extra 4 hours I have at my disposal this weekend! Might give my mate Jamie Roberts a ring, see if he's about for a protein shake!
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I agree, not much to comment on just yet except that I expected better things from Italy this year, they seem to have forgotten the fundamentals, like, how to tackle!
Ireland and France will improve as they go on and of course, the Welsh always come good in the later stages. Lets hope they don't leave it too late! Will England last? Yeah,s'pose. All the Best, Dave
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