I first remember watching the Five Nations as a teenager, back in the eighties. South Africa had only introduced television in 1976, with the apartheid government, in its Calvinist zeal, deeming it evil. Given the Kardashians and plethora of similar series, they may have had a point. My folks, bless ‘em only got a big, fat, shiny set replete with bunny ears and no remote in 1980, so my dad could watch the British Lions series.
‘White’ South Africa in those days was a shambles of ethno-nationalism, with Afrikaners dominating politically, English-speakers controlling much of the economy, a large Portuguese community that migrated here after Angolan and Mozambican independence, pockets of Italians who’d who stayed here after the Second World War (prisoners from North Africa were transferred here), very strong, if relatively small, Belgian (ex-Zaire), French (built our nuclear capacity and key dams, and gave us fighter jet and missile technology), German, Lebanese, Jewish, Zambian and Zimbabwean ‘whites’ (who still called themselves Rhodesian in the main), and a whole heap of first generation Brits, who came over in the sixties and seventies to work on the power stations, dams, mines, telecoms etc that the apartheid government was building.
The point? Amongst all these groups there was fierce sporting rivalry (and a fair amount of pub violence too), largely in football, which attracted huge whites-only crowds back then, but also spilling over into rugby. What of the rugby? The hair was big, the shorts were, er, not, the players largely looked normal-sized and there were no television match officials. It was glorious chaos. In South Africa, we had only the Currie Cup – a ferocious tournament at the time – and a handful of tours, with isolation starting to bite.
With an English mum and dad of English heritage, I naturally supported England in all matter sporting, so the early eighties were alright. Bill Beaumont led a grizzled pack full of policemen and other thugs magnificently! The Welsh wizardry of the 70s was waning, but still spoken of in hushed tones by our parents, Andy Irvine was my favourite Scot, Ollie Campbell and Tony Ward great Irishmen, but my oh my, it was Jean-Pierre Rives, the one and only J-PR, who stole hearts with his frenetic, fearless and gallant approach to rugby. It was a great time to be exposed to northern rugby. And Bill McLaren. The greatest sports commentator of all time? Certainly best UK one, in my books.
Watching those matches as the eighties meandered into the nineties, Scotland’s final hurrah in 1990 with the Grand Slam and a win over England (who I was backing, whilst my best mate rooted for Scotland) are some of my favourite sporting memories.
Fast forward to 2025, the Six Nations, the razzmatazz, the massive players, the huge squads, tactical subs, endless law changes, endless TMO reviews and endless bickering by fans on social media – it’s just not the same, is it? No. It’s completely different: and just as compelling. The skills on display, the crowds, the anthems (Flower of Scotland for me, just ahead of Land of Our Fathers and La Marseillaise) and the ancient rivalries, along with the addition of Rome and Italy make it a special tournament, to be treasured. Not to be fucked with. No relegation and promotion. No Springboks. Just as is. Progress and change be damned – the tournament is a beacon in a sea of endless repetition and tinkering.
And this year’s tournament promises to be a great one. France and Ireland or vice versa are favourites to win it, although most don’t expect a Slam, while Scotland (assuming they can keep 23 players fit) have a wonderful set of backs who can turn a Test on a tickey. The English media’s schizophrenic lurching between bombast and blubbering belies a side not far off being very, very good – capable, in my books, of beating any of the others on their day. In either hemisphere. Wales are rebuilding and will hope their arrested development turns the joke on someone else, whilst Italy have proven that on their day, they can play some magical stuff and trade it with the best. So as 2025 dawns, may young fans (of all ages) around the globe marvel at the likes of St Maro, Marcus Smith, Rabah Slimani, Julien Marchand, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Antoine Dupont(!), Damian Penaud, Sebastian Negri, Juan Ignacio Brex, Ange Capuzzo, Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Bundee Aki, Robbie Henshaw, Rory Darge, Jamie Ritchie, Darcy Graham, Finn Russell, Christ Tshiunza, Jac Morgan, Liam and Tomos Williams amongst so many others. Let these names be spoken of in hushed and fond tones as arguments echo down the ages, rivalries remain, growing stronger and closer: let the Six Nations speak on the field. Let’s enjoy one of the great sporting spectacles!
Reminiscences by deebee7, of course.
Onna telly this weekend
Showing matches that are televised in the UK and Ireland or on popular subscription services. Bold indicates that it’s on a free to view channel. Times are in the UK zone, so adjust as necessary.
Friday 31st January
| Scotland v Italy (U20s) | 19:15 | iPlayer |
| France v Wales | 20:15 | S4C, STV, ITV1 |
Saturday 1st February
| Scotland v Italy | 14:15 | BBC1 |
| Ireland v England | 16:45 | STV, ITV1 |
| France v Wales (U20s) | 20:10 | iPlayer, S4C |
Ovally Balls 
Real Rugby update; we’ve made the big time, getting a write up in The Offside Line
https://www.theoffsideline.com/breadalbane-finance-community-rugby-story-of-the-month-dunbar/
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I find it great coming back home after so long away that I played with the dads of 8 of the current team
Other guys I played with have sons who have gone on to play at a higher level and one has a daughter in the Edinburgh squad.
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How many of the grandads did you play with, Ticht?
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Deebee, the guy carrying the ball in the photograph, he is very quick, plays in the centre. His dad and I were in the same class at primary school. He was more of a footballer but his brother played fullback for us.
Their dad helped with the Boys Club football team when I was there at under 12 level. So I did have some contact with grandads, I guess.
Another grandad I wrote about some time ago when he died, the loveliest guy you will ever meet, a great supporter of youth rugby, but also the hardest and you’d never cross him, but luckily you wouldn’t want to. If he’d been at a more fashionable club he would have had numerous Scottish caps at prop.
He used a row boat to get to his creels – that could take some doing with a diesel engine if the current and wind were wrong.
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In Memorium.
So. Farewell then
Ford Galaxy.
You have carried us all
For sixteen years without complaint
And at little expense.
For a family car you were the absolute best.
Less so at the Ministry of Transport test.
RIP.
(with apologies to E.J. Thribb)
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Mapimpi banned for 3 games, for eye contact.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cqld7vzln1ko
Lozowski in for Murley, who has allegedly hurt his foot.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c8edg380d44o
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16 years! (delivered in Tommy Bowe-style)
We’ve an 8 year old Galaxy – on one hand my wife will be pleased it can be expected to last a good bit longer…. on the other hand she wants to get an electric car…..
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Mapimps clearly pushing the Cardiff bloke in the face. Stupid. Not sure he stood on Murley’s foot though, so can’t get banned for that.
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Away from rugby. Shaun, who makes really good videos on YouTube, is currently fundraising for PCRF. He’s on day 3 of streaming every day this week and has raised over £305,000 so far
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When Shaun ended the stream at 9pm, the total was 320k!
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Joe Schmidt dumping the Wobblies after this year’s Rugby Championship. Ntamack out of the England clash (ban for his red card, exemplary record saw it reduced from 6 to 3 weeks) and Tadhg Furlong and Joe McCarthy both missing for Ireland at Murraayfield. That’s all you need to know, now get back to work.
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@deebee
Schmidt’s standing down is apparently related to family stuff
Furlong – these calf problems have been recurrent and when they’ve occurred they haven’t been quick to resolve – so I’d doubt if he plays at all this 6N
McCarthy – apparently this was a concussion from training, so no harm to see him sit out another week (or 2 even)
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Trisk, I had thought it may be family related, given it’s pretty sudden and in the middle of a World Cup cycle. Hope it’s not too serious.
Jalibert in for Ntamack. Penaud back in too. France by several scores:
France: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Damian Penaud, 13 Pierre-Louis Barassi, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Antoine Dupont (captain), 8 Gregory Alldritt, 7 Paul Boudehent, 6 Francois Cros, 5 Emmanuel Meafou, 4 Alexandre Roumat, 3 Uini Atonio, 2 Peato Mauvaka, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros.
Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Georges-Henri Colombe, 19 Hugo Auradou, 20 Mickael Guillard, 21 Oscar Jegou, 22 Nolann Le Garrec, 23 Emilien Gailleton.
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I think France will win in Twickenham in spite of the change brought with Jalibert.
I know I’m wasting my time trying to correct a mistake (deliberate click bait?) but the British press is inaccurate when they keep on banging about Jalibert walking away in a fit of frustration in November. Both Galthié and Jalibert confirmed several weeks ago that he was unhappy feeling useless as a reserve (he was not in the 23 but in the stadium, just in case) and that he asked Galthié to be sent back to UBB where he could play for his club. Galthié agreed and Jalibert played with UBB. End of story. Doesn’t sell as much paper, I know.
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I wouldn’t read too much into the UK press (or any other for that matter). More importantly, Flair, Penaud is apparently only two tries shy of Serge Blanco’s record (38) for France – could he eclipse that on Saturday?
Just looked up record try scorers in Test matches (men’s) and was (genuinely) surprised to see how low down the list Blanco is (joint 20th) and that the leading Kiwi is Dougie Howlett in 7th with 49 tries. Interesting list, if anyone’s interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_leading_rugby_union_test_try_scorers
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@deebee
Schmidt’s son is well known to suffer from epilepsy (or at least it was well known here).
Seems like the Oz job was only ever a rescue – come in, stop things getting worse, set up good processes/structures, and bale.
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Great list Deebee. I must confess, to my great confusion, that I had never heard the name of the Japanese player who holds the world record.
Will Jordan’s caps/tries ratio is astounding. It certainly helps to play for the ABs but still ! I hope he has a longer career than most AB wingers, his total will be frightening.
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And yes, it’d be a good thing Penaud eclipsed Blanco next Saturday.
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Speaking of France…
Jamie Ritchie of Edinburgh is to join Perpignan on a two year deal as from next season.
I’m not surprised that he is going, he is on a big wage and the SRU have a large black accounting hole to fill. He will have looked at his mate Blair Kinghorn and noticed how well he is doing.
The only real surprise to me is that he is not going to a club further up the table, he was phenomenal when he started for Edinburgh at 17 years of age.
There is a malaise at Edinburgh that no one has been able to sort, the squad isn’t weaker than Glasgow’s yet the difference in the two sides is stark.
Anyway, best of luck to Jamie in his voyage to Catalonia. His young family will love it there.
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Shane’s record really does stand out on that list given that he didn’t have the advantages (chiefly playing for NZ) that most of the others had. Also Campo and BOD for different reasons. I see Penaud’s tries per game is very similar to Shane’s, what a player he is.
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The big Volvo that replaced the ‘French Van’ (as Sag once described it) that got squished with me in it failed its MOT in October. Pretty spectacularly. Finally got it back last week having parted with a small fortune. The minor upside to the crash was that we ended up with a nicer vehicle and I did a good job of fighting the insurance company and haggling with the seller so we ended up not doing too badly financially from it. That’s gone too now, ho hum.
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I’m just killing time here. When you compare players across the years I think it’s easy to make two things happen, we get misty-eyed about players of yore and we think the current generation are the best ever.
With that in mind, for me Blanco is the best French fullback I’ve ever seen. One could argue that you could take the word “French” out of that sentence and it would still be true.
Wingers? For me Penaud is up there with Clerc, Lasgisquet and Saint-Andre and to be frank I think young Louis Bielle-Biarrey is as good as any of them, or will be.
Sella is in the 13 jersey, no one else is taking that position. He had it all, power, pace, skill and a real hard edge.
I’m open to suggestion at 12, but I always liked Charvet, his passing was exceptional. The big guys like Danty are used more in the 12 shirt these days. I like the look of Costes at Toulouse for the future.
Funnily enough, France have had great players at 10, but many of them have been scrum halfs.
I’m going for Castaignede (I had to look up the spelling). He always seemed to score against us, no matter what number he was wearing.
Scrum half, well who could that possibly be? A couple of Welsh people have told me separately that there were two scrum half’s playing in Wales that would have been world class if it weren’t for a certain bloke called Gareth Edwards.
Number 9s in France are in a similar position now.
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Someone has edited Alfie’s try tally to 103 on that list
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@Ticht – Dupont’s obviously the best, but Berbizier will forever be my favourite.
Sella and Blanco definitely staying put. Dominici maybe worth a mention with those wingers, Penaud making a great case for being the best of the lot. I might still pick Bernat-Salles just for the look though.
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Clyde, my favourite is possibly Gallion, only because in the Colts we had a scrum half and a 7 who used to do a commentary when they were running down the wing passing to each other in games. “Gallion… to Rives…. Rives gives it back to Gallion… Gallion back again and Rives goes over in the corner”
They actually did this several times in matches.
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Most of the tens playing for France in the teams I loved were guys who also played centre rather than scrum halves – Mesnel, Lacroix, Lamaison etc. Camberabero probably my favourite that they played there (think he played other positions too though I would think not centre). He was a lot of fun if a bit erratic.
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Ticht – Alfie’s figures have been over one column “for some reason”. It shows the tries he scored next to Wales (40) and Lionz (1). Not sure why, some formatting thing possibly.
Interesting that there are only 8 players currently playing on the list. McDuhan will move up and Darcy will appear on it shortly too, I hope. Think Huw Jones is up about 22/23 tries so he might also appear at some point.
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@Ticht – Gallion would be before my time. I just loved the way Berbizier strutted about. And how he linked the backline to those amazing forward rumbles that mixed short (often blind) passing and mauling so beautifully.
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Thaum – should be something coming your way.
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There are some fantastic names that you’ve all brought up and I’d be hard pressed to disagree with any of them (even as a gobby 9). In terms of misty-eyed memories, could there be a better French performance than the 1999 World Cup semifinal, coming back from 24-10 down to defeat the mighty All Blacks 43-31?
I can’t remember where I’d been in the early afternoon (probably playing golf, come to think of it), but the match was on in the pub already and we walked in as Lomu scored his second. Well, that’s that then, I remember thinking, settling in for a few pints. As the second half unfolded, there was initially a bit of joking about France too little too late, etc, then a few nervous giggles, then the whole place erupting as they ran the Kiwis ragged. It was a magical match.
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I’m just embarrassed by the greengrocer’s apostrophe- that was definitely an autocorrect :-(
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Jamie Ritchie of Edinburgh is to join Perpignan
It’s tight (or should that be “ticht”) at the lower reaches of Top14 – IIRC correctly bottom club (currently Vannes) go straight down and 13th plays off with the ProD2 winner –
Stade are on 24, Racing 26, Perpignan 28, Pau 29, Lyon 30
Would be ironic / sad to end up in ProD2 – though we’d assume he’d cry all the way to the bank (as the saying goes)
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would have been world class if it weren’t for a certain bloke called Gareth Edwards
Chico Hopkins would be one… career overlapped with Edwards, 1 Welsh cap plus 1 appearance for the Lions
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Bernat-Salles just for the look though
That shock of grey hair – your first thought is who’s the old fella…… then the awful truth dawns….
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Jerome Gallion – not unlike Dupont in ways – shortish/stocky – played like an auxiliary back row
and going back one step further – Jacques Fouroux ….who Wikipedia tells me was 1.63m (5′ 4″) ….gee would anyone that size be let near the pitch now
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could there be a better French performance than the 1999 World Cup semifinal
What struck me during the game was the “smarts” of the French team – NZ got a try straight after ht to go 24-10 ahead – but Lamaison took a couple of DGs and then got a pen all within 5 mins – and suddenly it was 24-19.
The rest we all know – Dominici gets the crazy bounce and NZ are reeling. But sometimes just chipping away is a good policy – that fews mins got them back into a game that looked gone
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@Trisk – Yes, the forwards really got rumbling after halftime. Also they weren’t as far behind as it felt because they had scored a really good try of their own right at the start before they started getting smashed.
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“would have been world class if it weren’t for a certain bloke called Gareth Edwards”
This sort of talk at a time like this is just another reason to feel sorry for Gats. And I don’t mean because he can’t select Gareth Edwards (or indeed Sean Fitzpatrick).
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Eben Etzebeth out for the foreseeable future with concussion. It’s his 3rd major concussion problem, and at 33, he should seriously consider calling it quits. He’s achieved pretty much everything he can and whilst we’d love him to carry on for another world cup here, it’s not worth the risk. A lot of our World Cup winning forwards from 2023 have battled with injury since – Etzebeth with this and other injuries, Kitshoff with a neck injury (may not return), PS du Toit with another long-term injury, Lood de Jager still out, Bongi’s had a couple of wear and tear issues. These guys really do need a 3 month break between seasons, which they’re not getting (in any league). Time for a rethink.
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Deebs, I agree he should call it a day. It’s just not worth it and as you say, there is nothing left for him to achieve at the highest level.
Trisk, I’ve had a look at Perpignan’s fixtures, they have UBB at the end of March, La Rochelle and Toulouse as the final two games of the regular season. Apart from that they are playing the teams around them on the table – there will be some ding dong battles there
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Ireland: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris (captain), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 James Ryan, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 1 Andrew Porter.
Replacements: 16 Dan Sheehan, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Ryan Baird, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Jack Crowley, 23 Garry Ringrose.
Haven’t seen the Scotland side yet, but Ireland’s bench has some serious firepower. Scotland will need to be well eahd come the last 20 miutes or so.
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“Scotland will need to be well eahd”
That looks more of an Irish thing to me.
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POM’s back!
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Don’t forget Gachassin at FH (and he was good!). Peaked at 1m62. Thats 5’2″ I think.
Don’t know how he survived without all the cameras
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My guesses for the weekend:
Italy by 8
France by 11
Ireland by 6
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New post in the offing.
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It is here.
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