The Man with No Time

The final week of the 2014 6 Nations tournament was incredibly tense. Not necessarily because of close games it has to be said. Two of the three were blowouts, but the finale really made up for it as the momentum swung back and forth between the sides, and the final standings correspondingly went in favour of one team or another. I'll get to that eventually, but as usual I'll start with Scotland's performance.

The penultimate week of the 6 Nations is when the shape of the table starts to become clearer, and is often where championship hopes are dashed. After all, not everyone can win. This year there were four teams (England, France, Ireland, and Wales) on four points, and potentially in with a chance. By the end of the weekend at least one of them would be behind the others, possibly two, or even three.  Scotland were playing France at home. They haven't beaten les Bleus since 2006 (a match I remember well), but after the events of week 3 this wasn't just going to be a French benefit.

The middle week of the 6 Nations has been and gone. It's always a bit of an odd one, week 3. There's a week's break either side of it, so the players are generally well rested and the matches are high quality. Plus it gives the managers a chance to step back, assess the progress that they may or may not have made, evaluate their performances, and maybe mess around with the squad lineups a bit. This year it was all that and even more; there were the two matches on Saturday, as is normal, but the third match was played on the Friday night, on prime time television, which I think is a great thing for the sport of rugby union.

The second weekend of the 2014 6 nations has been and gone. How did Scotland get on this week against 'the auld enemy' in the Calcutta cup? What about Wales after last week's shaky start? Could France keep their form against Italy? Would I get to watch any of it live?

The 6 Nations is back! It's about time too; with all of the hype surrounding this year's Superbowl (more on that later), my favourite sporting tournament snuck up on me this year. I feel rather ashamed, as I have basically no idea about what's been going on in international rugby union in the run up to the 2014 6 Nations, but now that it's here I'm certainly going to enjoy it. Or try to at least...although it's a new year, it's more of the same it seems as far as my favourite team is concerned.

Not much to report this week I’m afraid as far as the 6 nations goes. I was busy at the RLSS Speeds all weekend, so didn’t get to watch any of the games. The highlight reels on the BBC website(link) didn’t throw up anything noteworthy either, other than a tied game between Ireland and France. It’s not often you see that in rugby. I’m not confident about next weekend either. I’m likely to be running around like a mad thing at the BULSCA Championships, and despite joking about getting a big screen on poolside I think I’ll be missing those matches as well. Busy, busy, busy. (Credit: lifehacker.com)

After a week off to rest their weary bodies, the rugby players of the home nations, Italy, and France were back in action this weekend for round 3 of the 2013 Six Nations. And what a weekend it was! (Credit: rbs6nations.com) (Warning - this is going to be a long post!)

Week 2 of the 2013 6 nations is done! This won’t be a long post, as I didn’t see any of the games live. I did, however, watch the Scotland-Italy match on iPlayer, so I’ll focus on that. The team captains for this year's 6 nations. (Credit: rbs6nations.com)

This weekend is a big one for sport for me. Yesterday I competing at the Scottish Short Course Championships(link), and tonight I’ll be watching the climax of the NFL, the Superbowl. But this weekend has also been the opening weekend for the Rugby Union 6 Nations, a tournament that I look forward to every year. I love watching rugby union. I was forced to play it whilst at school, which I didn’t enjoy, but I have fond memories of sitting down to watch the odd match here and there on television during my teenage years. Watching any rugby on TV meant the 5 nations (as it was at the time), and I remember watching some of the great players and wishing that rugby was as fun to play as it was to watch. Being a Scotland fan recent years have been lean ones, and watching the national team play has often been a painful experience. But I still wouldn’t miss the 6 nations for anything. I can’t catch every match, but fortunately they’re all live on the BBC, which these days mean...