I am just back from a weekend in London, although that is slightly misleading because I only went to London in order to get a train to Cardiff because we had tickets for THE match! Oh yes my friends, we were there at the Millennium Stadium for the 6 Nations Rugby 2009 showdown. If you don't know anything about rugby then you are seriously missing out but it's too complicated for me to explain (it's a little like American football without wearing all the protective gear). Anyway every year, the national teams from Ireland, Italy, England, France, Wales & Scotland play in the 6 Nations competition (it was 5 nations until 10 years ago when Italy joined in the fun). I follow it religiously!
Anyway Ireland have never won the 6 Nations. yes, we have come close, tantalisingly so, but we have never actually won the wretched thing and then this year things started to come right meaning that Saturday's match in Cardiff was THE BIG ONE. In fact it was bigger than simply being the 6 Nations decider; if Wales (the current holders) beat us, but by less than 13 points, we still won the competition. However if we beat Wales by even 1 incy wincey point then the Championship was ours and so was the Grand Slam i.e. all 5 countries beaten in the one competition.
Ireland last won the Grand Slam in 1948 so it has been 61 long, long years and WE DID IT and I WAS THERE!! It was the most dramatic Saturday afternoon of my life with the last 2 minutes being the deciding minutes of the match. I have aged about 50 years and my fingernails will take weeks to recover but, boy, what a game. If you have any interest at all have a look at this
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About Me
- Edith
- I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, left the Emerald Isle for about 12 years to study and work in England (interspersed with travels to India, Asia and other parts of Europe). I returned to Belfast about 5 years ago and met up with a boy I had first got to know when I was 16 and married him... Talk about coming the full circle! We both live about 20 miles from Belfast in the countryside with a wild garden we are trying to tame and vegetables we are trying to cultivate!
2 comments:
I've always been interested in rugby (a soccer fan, myself) but it's not very popular over here, so I never hear about it. Thanks for sharing! I'll bet it was exciting to be there!
I will have to let my irish hunk of a husband know this news.. a bit belated for sure, but what ev! ;) We don't always get the European matches here in the US and sometimes the In-laws in Ireland don't always keep him up to date .. so late news is better than no news at all.
btw thanks for the comment on my own blog. Keep up the blogging yourself. It can be quite addicting but fun. insert scary whisphery voice here saying "join us" ;)
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