Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

It's Six Nations rugby time again. Yesterday, England trounced Scotland and France routed Italy. Today, at 3 pm, it's Wales vs. Ireland in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. If Ireland win, it will be hard stop the lads in green this season. The BBC has rolled out an impressive looking Six Nations blog for the championship. Contributors include BBC commentators Nick Mullins, Andrew Cotter, Gareth Lewis and John Beattie, as well as rugby writers Jim Stokes, Bryn Palmer and Rob Hodgetts.

Just noticed that the blog's "House Rules" state: "We reserve the right to fail messages which:

Are considered likely to provoke, attack or offend others
Are racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable
Contain swear words or other language likely to offend

But, like it or not, aren't these the very things that rugby supporters revel in? Rugby is not cricket. And neither is it PC. That's why people play and support the game. They love rucking, mauling, barging in the lineout, singing those filthy songs, drinking vast amounts of alcohol and escaping for a few hours the suffocating confines of the legal, accounting and medical professions that supply so many of the game's participants.

When Paul Dacre attacked the BBC's "cultural Marxism", he accused the corporation of being "intolerant and consumed by political correctness" and went on to say that it is "… hostile to conservatism and the traditional right, Britain's past and British values, America, Ulster unionism, Euroscepticism, capitalism and big business, the countryside, Christianity and family values." He could have added the ethos of rugby as well.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 4 February 2007 at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

LIMERICK The Champions League was fascinating and many people got quite worked up about it, but when it comes to tribalism, soccer doesn't hold a candle to rugby anymore and that's why tomorrow's Heineken Cup Final in Cardiff between Munster and Biarritz is such a passionate affair.

Best story of the run-up this week involved the canny Limerick entrepreneur who saw an opening for Munster flags that needed waving by the province's rugby-mad population. He reckoned the market could absorb 40,000 pennants so he set off to the one place in the world today where such orders can be placed and fulfilled at short notice — China. Arriving in Guangzhou, he headed to the local Irish pub, found a contact, did the business and is now confident of selling every flag the comrades delivered. And the name of the Irish pub in Guangzhou where the deal was done. The Paddyfield!

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 19 May 2006 at 7:42 AM | Permalink

"The game lived up to its reputation as the battle between the Six Nations' two worst sides from the opening whistle." A somewhat ungenerous statement, that, by BBC Sport about an encounter that produced a memorable result: Italy 20-14 Scotland. Any win by Italy at this level is to be welcomed as it gives a great boost to the game in southern Europe. Italian rugby must struggle for survival and establish a tradition in a land where soccer is king. Italia 30-Galles 22 was the heading of the post we wrote here on 16 February last year. That result had marked Italy's second Six Nations rugby win ever. Now it's three. Bravissimo!

On the rugby Richter scale, the Italian win over Scotland registers an impressive 7.2, but Ireland's 19-13 victory over England defies measurement. Quite simply, instruments for calibrating this kind of impact have not been devised by science yet. The headline "Ireland beat World Champions" puts the result in context. This is an achievement of global significance, and the fact that the lads in green won at Twickenham is the icing on the cake. The Ireland-Italy clash in Dublin on Saturday, 20 March should be mighty craic, as they say in Irish quarters.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 7 March 2004 at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Warmly remembered by generations of students for its colourful name, the War of Jenkins's Ear was fought in the 1730s between the ascendant British Empire and the ailing Spanish Empire. In the end, it was minor military and mercantile importance. How historians will treat the 2003 Rugby World Cup remains to be seen, but if it is remembered it might well enter the books as the Tournament of Wilkinson's Toe.

England's 20-17 extra-time victory over Australia in today's final in Sydney was a team effort, but Jonny Wilkinson was the player who made the difference in the end. His dramatic drop goal 26 seconds before the expiration of extra time was one of the finest efforts of its kind. The pressure was huge, the time-window was closing, the opposition were bearing down, and in this critical moment, Wilkinson was perfect. It was a fitting end to a fine tournament.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 22 November 2003 at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The final scoreline tells the story: England 42-Ireland 6. "Awsome England Clinch Title" is the BBC story headline and it's so accurate. The Irish were brave; their running was exciting, but they could get nowhere against a superb English defence. Martin Johnson's men must be favoured now to win this year's World Cup.

And now, this item via Brad DeLong, via Electrolite, via William Gibson, via Sky News...

"Umm Qasr is a town similar to Southampton," UK Defence Minister Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons yesterday. "He's either never been to Southampton, or he's never been to Umm Qasr," said one British soldier, informed of this while on patrol in Umm Qasr. Another added: "There's no beer, no prostitutes, and people are shooting at us. It's more like Portsmouth."

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 30 March 2003 at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My, my, how time flies. It was all of 55 years ago, when, led by the great Jack Kyle, Ireland last won the "Home Countries" rugby championship with a close 6-3 victory over Wales. The expanded competition is now called the
RBS Six Nations Championship and it will be decided today at Lansdowne Road in Dublin. With wins over Scotland, Italy, France and Wales, the Irish are just 80 minutes away from writing a chapter of rugby history. All that stands in the way is England. But there's the rub.

Even the most optimistic Irish supporter has to accept hat the odds are against the home side. England, one of the best teams in the world at the moment, defeated Australia, New Zealand and South Africa last November, and imperiously dismissed Scotland 40-9 last weekend, while an erratic Ireland emerged from Cardiff with a very lucky 25-24 win over Wales. So, form favours England, but they'll be facing a psyched up Irish team, on the verge of only its second Grand Slam in history and in a packed Lansdowne Road, to boot. Because the Triple Crown, Grand Slam and Championship are up for grabs today the red rose won't have it easy in Dublin.

Diarist of the day: Malcolm Muggeridge, 30 March 1948

"Started reading Goebbels' Diary. Interested to note that he, too [was a] writer manqué who had begun by producing a bad novel and a play which no theatre would put on. Most men of action seem to be writers manqué and correspondingly most writers, men of action manqué. Interesting theme."

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 7:49 AM | Permalink

Nice one! The Irish win at Murrayfield for the first time since 1985. And in style, too. David Humphreys racked up 26 points and Brian O'Driscoll ran the porridge-footed Scots ragged. Next Saturday's game in Rome against the Italians should be all the more enjoyable as a result of this win. The Irish feel this could be the year for memorable deeds and the Italians, encouraged by their win over Wales, will have everything to play for. Ah, the simple pleasures of life.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 16 February 2003 at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

E' finita in un autentico trionfo, as the Italians say. Yes, indeed, Italy 30 - Wales 22 was the final scoreline yesterday as the Azzurri won only their second Six Nations rugby match ever when they defeated Wales in the Stadio Flaminio under the Rome sun. For the record, the last time Italy enjoyed a Six Nations win was against Scotland in 2000. Yesterday, the outstanding fly-half Diego Dominguez scored 15 points, and tries from Giampiero De Carli, Carlo Festuccia and Matthew Phillips were simply too much for a Welsh side which looked extremely uninspired.

Later today Ireland face Scotland in Murryfield, and the Rainy Day team will be in the Stadio Flaminio next Saturday to witness the clash of the Irish and the Italians. Blogging HQ will alternate between The Drunken Ship in the Campo de' Fiori and The Fiddlers' Elbow on the Via dell Olmata.

Diarist of the day: Captain Robert Falcon Scott, 16 February 1912

"12.5m. Lunch Temp.+6.1?; Supper Temp. .+7?. A rather trying position. Evans has nearly broken down in the brain, we think. He is absolutely changed from his normal self-reliant self. This morning and this afternoon he stopped the march on some trivial excuse. We are on short rations, but not very short, food spins out until tomorrow night. We cannot be more than 10 or 12 miles from the depot, but the weather is all against us. After lunch we were enveloped in a snow sheet, land just looming. Memory should hold the events of a very troubled march, with more troubles ahead. Perhaps all will be well if we can get to our depot tomorrow fairly early, but it is anxious work with the sick man. But it's no use meeting troubles halfway, and our sleep is all too short to write more."

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)