Who's That Girl? La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Yeah, she's back and she's already eyeing up Twenty Major for Saturday night.

Ken Livingstone embarks on yet another ambitious plan. Who would doubt that he'll succeed.

Adds more weight to my theory that people should have to apply for a licence to have kids.

Ask and you shall receive. This girl should really get your nomination for a Brit Blog Award.

NewsBiscuit headline - no relation to In Fact, Ah - "Woman accepts afternoon snack without fuss".

Nice card trick.


tags:links

Published by Colm.  

I think Faz may have someone else on his mind who'll need saving rather than the Queen come Saturday 5:30. I'm sure Messrs D'Arcy and O'Driscoll have a few nice 'Fáilte to Test Rugby' set-pieces up their sleeves.


Well, it's almost here. Thankfully. Look at how long we've been waiting for this one!

The build up to the game and the furore drummed up over God Save The Queen being played at Croke Park is truly sickening. We can put aside for a moment the fact that the Irish team's chances this tournament have undoubtedly been adversely affected by all the talk surrounding the move to Croke Park, even though that's grating enough for the rugby fans amongst us.

The public discourse in the build up to the England game has yet again highlighted that it seems a large minority (I hope it's a minority!) of the public have a long way to go with leaving the unsavoury elements of our past behind almost a decade since a firm template was put in place for achieving re-unification of our island in an inclusive manner. PMC already wrote well on the situation here a few days ago and managed to get himself linked from this post in the BBC's Six Nations Blog in the process.

As they say, every cloud has a silver lining. For the toll all this has taken on the national team's fortunes and the ugly nationalistic opinions simmering below the surface of public debate maybe we have gained some welcome reflection in Irish society on our own National Anthem. I've made my own views which are now more strongly held than ever clear on the topic here before. Since then United Irelander has had his interesting suggestion for a New Anthem and this week, Paige has written well on the subject. Elsewhere, on Tuesday morning GAA poster-boy Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh said on Pat Kenny's radio show "If we object to the English national anthem then we should look at our own as well." In Tuesday's Irish Examiner Fergus Finlay also wrote convincingly in an article titled "God Save The Queen Not Nearly As Bloodthirsty As Our Outdated Anthem".

Finlay, in his involvement with bringing the Special Olympics to Ireland will have been more aware than most of what Eddie O'Sullivan reminded us of this week. Namely that the British National Anthem went off without so much as a flinch during the Special Olympics in Croke Park. Stick that in your pipe Republican Sinn Fein.

This weekend I hope the English team get as rousing a reception as they did in 1973 when they were afforded what is widely regarded as the longest standing ovation ever in Lansdowne road. You can hear ex-Ireland legend Ollie Campbell engagingly recount the special story of England's visit to Lansdowne in 1973 on the current installment of Irish Rugby Radio from the IRFU which is linked to here. Suffice to say, Saturday's game will not be the first time an Ireland -v- England rugby match clawed its way out of a mire of negative public sentiment and non-sporting malaise. There's also plenty of game related chat with players there regarding this weekend.

Hopefully this weekend it won't be just the reception the England team receives that will be similar to the 1973 match!

My final note on the media coverage in the run up to this weekend's game is from the letters pages of the press which have been buzzing with amusing thoughts on the Anthem debate all week. From Tuesday's Irish Times:

Madam, - I think I may have found a solution to the Croke Park anthem dilemma. God Save the Queen should be translated and sung in Irish, a language the vast proportion of our people do not appear to understand. - Yours, etc,

Des MacHale, Avonlea Court, Blackrock,Cork.

So, excuse the meandering - leave your predictions for Match Weekend Three of the In Fact, Ah Six Nations Tipping Competition in the comments section!

tags: Six Nations

Published by Paul.  

Thursday evenings were not traditionally a time of the week I would have looked forward to with any great zeal. With a New Year comes new things (thankfully!) and one of my favourite new finds of 2007 has been Ronan Fitzgerald's show Lonarch on Radio Na Life every Thursday evening from 9p.m. - 10:30p.m.

In his slot, Ronan showcases his distillate knowledge of everything musical that is fresh, electronic and German (as Gaeilge, ar ndóigh!). Much of the music is very hot off the press. There are always some tracks each week captivating enough that they'll compel you to follow up on and thus throw open invigorating niches of musical exploration. What really makes this show even more smashing is that it's available, usually the next day, as a good quality mp3 from Ronan's blog, complete with tracklisting. The shows are archived here.

Last week's show was without doubt the best yet of 2007 with a second half in particular which simmered boisterously with bewitching sounds, culminating in Zander Vt's Dig Your Own Rave, a track which makes you wonder what kind of ruination it could wreak on a dancefloor considering it sounds this good on a radio show.

By the by, congrats are due to Ronan on his deserved nomination for the Best Music Blog Category in The Irish Blog awards. Just make sure along with the DJing around Dublin and journalism for The Guardian and Pitchforkmedia you don't forget about my Thursday evenings!

Some T. Raumschmiere Video from this set in Lisbon last year is here

In broadly related news, one of the gems of 2007 club events so far takes place this Thursday, 22nd Feb when Electric City present T. Raumschmiere at Wax. Myself and most of the In Fact, Ah crew managed to catch this doyen of the Berlin punk rock and techno scene performing a DJ set last June on his label Shitkatapult's home turf of Maria am Ostbahnhof in Berlin. His DJ set sounded like a mechanised banshee in abject distress punctuated by beats funky enough to make any dancefloor swoon.

Wax will provide a perfect no-frills space to be ground down and submitted to his "Stay Anti" musical credo. Not for the faint hearted lounge crowd and definitely not to be missed.

**Errr, Ed, where are all these writers coming from around here these days!? I could barely find a spot for the In Fact, Ah-mobile in the company car park this morning!

tags: music, techno

Published by Paul.  

Stones Throw Records, home to such hip-hop luminaries as MF Doom, Madlib and producer Peanut Butter Wolf, have released 'Chrome Children 2', continuing their collaboration with cartoon network Adult Swim. Good news is it's free for download here (scroll to bottom of list and download entire album). Enlisting the production talents of Fourtet, Dabrye, and Yesterday's New Quintet, this release is a good snapshot of where alternative hip-hop is at the moment. The artwork is also worthy of any computer's desktop wallpaper. Go ahead and download it, free of the guilt you feel when dowloading from soulseek and the attendant visions of starving indie artists. And remember, if you don't like hip-hop, you're racist.

Record label names don't come much better than Cock Rock Disco, coincidentally home to arguably the greatest name ever for an artist: duran duran duran. CRD have two full length downloadables available on their site. One is a compilation (here) featuring duran duran duran, doormouse and the violent mayhem of drumcorps. The other release (here) is a 60 minute mix by label owner Jason Forrest. It's a lightning fast trip through the most obscure breakcore, Japanese trance-core (beat that genre name) and pummeling gabber. Listeners of a nervous disposition should steer clear of Cock Rock Disco releases.

**The staff at In Fact, Ah would like to categorically state that the recent marked increase in posts has absolutely nothing to do with the nominations we received for the upcoming blog awards.

tags:[Free Music]

Published by El Commandant P.  

This week, it's hard to open a paper, turn on the telly or tune into the radio without coming across some discussion of this Saturday's big match in Croker. As in the run up to the French match, little of the talk centred around the game itself. This week the emphasis has unsurprisingly concentrated on the perceived political and social issues surrounding the arrival of the English rugby team and its low-swinging chariot to Croker. You'd almost forget that there is a match to be played at this stage.

The arrival of an English team to this hallowed ground and especially the airing of God Save the Queen is a sensitive issue for many in the GAA community, especially relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday. However the politicisation of the match by A) The British Government's misconceived plans to lay a wreath and B) Republican Sinn Fein's utterly ignorant attempt to hold a protest prior to the game irks me greatly. Both seem to me to be nothing more than political opportunism and completely at odds with the gesture the GAA has made in opening up Croke Park to soccer and rugby.

If the British were sincere about some form of reconciliation in regard to the events of November 21st 1920, they should issue a sincere and genuine apology rather than laying a wreath at a non GAA fixture. If Republican Sinn Fein have any aspirations to be taken seriously in the country perhaps they should help in the promotion of football and hurling in the working class areas of Dublin and Belfast where they are based rather that recruiting hooligans in Celtic jerseys.

This is not an attempt to play down the significance of the occasion but it must be remembered this is a sporting event. The GAA has repeatedly stated its belief that "a sports fixture is not the appropriate time to come to terms with something that, although it took place during a match, has long ago grown into a broader political concern". They have also shown themselves to be open-minded and fair and it's about time other interested parties started behaving similarly. So let everyone sit back, mute the telly if you can't stand God Save The Queen that much, enjoy the occasion and here's hoping we send the old enemy home to Sasanach battered and bruised and well and truly out of contention for this years 6 Nations. After all, unlike 1920 that's the only reason they've been let in to this wonderful sporting arena.

Finally, I have two spare tickets for anyone who is interested!

tags:Croke Park

Published by PMC.  

Published by Francie.  

The solo singer songwriter is a much beleaguered soul around these parts. Armed only with a guitar and their inspiration those said artists seeking glowing affirmations of their labour aren’t like to find much currency from most of the In Fact, Ah crew. The list of offending acts is eternally expanding: Rice, O’Rourke, Blunt, Gray, Ritter, Mundy, Rosey, Mark Geary, Fionn Regan, James Morrision etc etc etc. They all seem to espouse the same acoustic portrayal of the ‘boy meets girl, girl breaks boy’s heart and boy picks up guitar and writes song about it’ story. Insipid lyrics and tedious acoustic arrangements aside I guess the bottom line is that their music doesn’t leave any imprint on my psyche or any recurring melody in my head. I began to think perhaps I’m the problem here. Maybe their music is really not that shite and it’s just another case of musical snobbery on my part, not willing to recognise true talent. But no, thankfully here comes Ray LaMontagne to my rescue with a truly magnificent piece of work to affirm that the taste buds are still intact.

The beauty of ‘Till the Sun Turns Black’ is that it is a timeless record. It sounds like it could have been released 30 years ago and it will still sound amazing in another ten or twenty years from now. And while there have been obvious comparisons with the likes of Nick Drake and Tim Buckley, other parts of the album are more reminiscent of upbeat soul songs by Otis Redding or Ray Charles. In the end however Ray LaMontagne’s work is distinctly his own. Perhaps it is the strength of his hoarse low-key vocals coupled with simplistic constructed musical arrangements that wins the listener over. From the opening track ‘Be Here Now’, the sombre reflective tone of the album is set. Every song tells a different story in accessible honest lyrics. An introvert of sorts, Lamontagne is likely to turn up for a gig and not communicate with the audience in any shape or form. He’s actually been known to play in the dark on stage, simply doing his thing and then promptly departing having delighted his relatively small but loyal band of adoring fans. To properly review this album I would need an age and more to do it justice. Suffice to say that if you are sick to the teeth of the other singer songwriter tripe out there, I suggest you give this record a spin. You are likely to find something that is absent from his contemporaries, be it musical talent, integrity or just plain genius. Check it out.

Published by Dae.  

Only two weeks to go to the second Irish Blog Awards and news has come through this evening that In Fact, Ah will be competing for three of the statuettes; Best Group Blog, Best Arts & Culture Blog and Best Sports Blog.

Really looking forward to meeting Twenty Major again. But that old codger can change his own nappy next time.

An occasion like this demands that I wear my man-size communion suit and spend my communion money on pints of blackcurrant. What is everyone wearing?

But our nominations are not without controversy. No, sirree Bob. Rumblings come from Robin Blanford, who usually writes about climbing mountains and rescuing people from the sea in Howth, who says that "The possible “Best Irish Sports Blog” could be In Fact, Ah with approximately 3 posts a months actually about a sport, the other 95% is Arts & Culture - and justified for that award."

We're causing a stir already! No such thing as bad publicity, eh? And for the record, we publish sports content more than 3 times a month.

tags:irish blog awards

Published by Colm.  

The general malaise persists still since last weekend. I just hope a pitcure like the above is now branded on the players' psyche until September 21st.

Lets hope the provinces can put in good performances tonight to help nudge the mood forward. The great hope of Irish propping, Darragh Hurely gets a start for Munster tonight, while Leinster have a very exciting side out also for somewhat of a grudge match against their arch nemisis Edinburgh who inflicted a humbling defeat on the Irish province earlier this year in the Heineken cup.

Here are the cumulative totals after Match Weekend 2 of the In Fact, Ah Six Nations Tipping Competition [Lower Score is Better].

Tom 78
Dae 97
Incognito 101
Murray 120
Barabus 121
Egardoo 122
Da Rossie 125
Francie 127
Jap 137
PMC 139
The Salmon Of Knowledge 146
Colm 148
Gib 167
The Slippery Orange Ballcock 176
Cahony 178
Bull 182
Lorenzo 217

Don't forget to return next Thursday to get your predictions for Match Weekend 3 in.

Also, please vote for In Fact, Ah in the Irish Blog Awards (Best Group Blog sounds nice in particular! *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*) here before 5p.m. this evening.

tags: Six Nations

Published by Paul.  

in the whole self-nomination game.

EDIT EDIT: There's only one day left (voting finishes Friday 16th Feb midnight) to vote for us! If we don't get in, I'll have to content myself with voodoo dolls and TCAL for another year.

EDIT: I've been told that I didn't make an aggressive enough pitch for votes. Imagine. If a shit, shower, shave, coffee and In Fact, Ah forms an integral part of your morning routine, do please vote for us. That plane ticket needs some justification.

For In Fact, Ah it's the Irish Blog Awards. Seriously, it's the only way to get people to consider you a serious contender.

But a sincere thanks to those who saw fit to nominate us in no less than 6 categories, including Best Blog, Best Group Blog, Best Music, Best Designed, Best Arts & Culture and Best Sport.

After this second round, it's the shortlist proper for the awards on the night. Go here and vote for who you think deserves a crack at causing a scene in the Alexander Hotel on March 3rd.



tags:irishblogawards

Published by Colm.  

Some fodder for the day that's in it...


Soldout - I Don't Want To Have Sex With You

Madvillain - Fancy Clown [Listen]

Death Cab For Cutie - Your Heart Is An Empty Room



Radiohead - Lurgee (Live)



Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead



My Morning Jacket - Heartbreakin' Man (Live)



Jens Lekman - Do You Remember The Riots (Live)



Shellac - Prayer To God (Live)



Tom Waits - Who Are You?



The Shins - Gone For Good (Live)


Avalanches - Since I Left You


Interpol - Obstacle 1




tags: valentine, music

Published by Paul.  

I hope you didn't choke on your coffee there reader, but yes, you did read that post title correctly first time around. Here's the full story on boards.ie.

To borrow a phrase, talk to In Fact, Ah. What would you do if subjected to such an ordeal?

tags: Luas

Published by Paul.  

After watching England today, I'm left with the distinct impression there's a Grand Slam hanging on a low branch for whoever wins at Croke Park tomorrow. I hope the men in green have the shoulders to throw off the yoke of cultural significance at Croker tomorrow. In any case, kudos to the GAA for providing the awesome setting.

I spent some of today trying to take the edge off the nervous energy resulting from anticipation of the big game by int0rweb diversions. Here are the fruits of that labor:


Live Kraftwerk performance from the German television show Club Beat in 1971 including the guys who later formed Neu! It's quite long (intro ends around 3 mins, crescendos soon after 6 and 9 minutes) but very worthwhile:





The most surreally beautiful video clip I've ever seen on the UtubeTron. Pristine innocence recaptured and a chance to look at the world anew via the goggles of LSD [Taken from the must see 1964 BBC Documentary The Beyond Within which can be seen in full here:

EDIT: PaddyC's excellent Movie Review blog has taken the ball here and ran with it by providing a very informative review of the entire documentary.





...and finally, even The Muppet's can sing Irish songs, so I can't wait to hear 80,000 Irish try The Fields tomorrow:

Published by Paul.  

I’d like to say I hope everyone enjoyed last weekend’s rugby but that’s probably a bit too aspirational. Whether it was the completely abysmal display of Italy by their own low standards in the competition or the likely to be proved hollow thumping England gave to the callow Scots or even the manner in which Ireland hauled themselves to victory through their experience, poise and composure when perfection in technical execution failed them there was much to be disappointed about on the opening weekend. No major shocks, except possibly super-Wilko giving what was a spectacular return performance with the whip hand in the chariot.

Plenty to look forward to this week then from an Irish perspective, there’s ample room for improvment and playing some truly devastating rugby. Bionic Shaggy’s return is truly stunning and will do a very good job of papering over the midfield cracks should Brian O’Driscoll not make the game.

Here are the week 1 results from the In Fact, Ah 6N tipping competition:

Italy v France
Closest Prediction: Incognito - Ita 9 France 39 [Actual Ita 3 France 39]

England v Scotland
Closest Prediction: Tom - Eng 38 Scot 15 [Actual Eng 42 Scotland 20]

Wales v Ireland
Closest Prediction: Egardoo – Wales 12 Ire 17 [Actual Wales 9 Ire 19]

Points Table: [Less points is better]
Tom 25
Incognito 35
Murray 46
Egardoo 48
Da Rossie 57
Bull 58
Barabus 61
Francie 64
The Salmon Of Knowledge 70
Colm 70
Dae 70
Jap 79
PMC 84
Gib 85
The Slippery Orange Ballcock 91
Lorenzo 93
Cahony 96


Very well done to Tom, proving his credentials as the most on the ball sports blogger around these parts!

So no excuses for this weekend people, you’ve all had a chance to get a measure of the teams from watching them last weekend. As you can see, some of us have some ground to catch up already! Please leave your predictions for match weekend 2 in the comments section by tomorrow.



tags: rugby, six nations

Published by Paul.  

The first big race of festival week is the Champion Hurdle ran on Day One. Run just over 2 miles, it's run on quite a gallop, but winners must be able to clear each hurdle and then tackle the famous uphill finish at an electrfying speed to come home first. The Irish have done very well in the race in recent years, with the great Aiden O’Brien-trained Istabraq winning it three times, denied a certain history-making four-in-a-row by the foot and mouth outbreak, which led to the cancellation of the festival. More recently Hardy Eustace has won it twice and last year's winner Brave Inca has added to Ireland's recent success.

Brave Inca is back to defend his crown but he will face stern competition from a number of contenders, most notebly from the English-trained Detroit City. Previous winner Hardy Eustace ran a great race in beating both Brave Inca and Macs Joy to capture the AIG Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on 28th January 07 and can’t be ignored on his recent Festival form alone. English hopes lie with the aforementioned Detroit City and Straw Bear, the latter I feel has the potential to win but may be found wanting amongst such classy company come the turn and run up that famous hill.

Favourites in the betting for the Champion Hurdle have fared okay in recent years and many punters hopes will lie with either Detroit City or Brave Inca. But I’m going to tip Asian Maze to bring some each-way value for In Fact, Ah readers. Currently trading at around 25/1, I feel this horse is a lot better than these odds suggest. This horse is due a big run soon and I feel trainer Thomas Mullins has been preparing the horse with this race in mind, with champion jockey Ruby Walsh likely to be onboard. The horse will be given a great ride around the Cotswold course. Also I have an inkling that Itkitaf will run a strong race - he’s available at 16/1 at the moment.
tags:champion hurdle

Published by Francie.  

One of the first complaints you'll hear about an emerging ethnic influence in any country is that the indigenous culture and identity is being diluted. Understanding the national identity is probably not the most pressing matter for an economic migrant entering a country by shipping container. Finding somewhere to stay and having food to eat could be considered more relevant in the alien's eyes.

Pity then that these containers don't come equipped with a welcome pack that would ease the transition. Imagine a guide to Ireland for Brazilian factory workers who, sans the language and a working permit, go to work packing meat in Roscommon. There might be sections on "How to order a breakfast roll in Gweedore" or "The Game of Shinty" and so on. Think of how assured these workers would feel then.

But that compilation would be as easy as what was put together as Old Moore’s Almanac. We're Irish and what it means to be that way is as clear as Eamon Casey's conscience. The British on the other hand have no such reference points and to have them would draw accusations of "jingoism" from the liberal broadsheets. Many schools, communities, cities, workplaces and social gathering spaces are marked by the absense of anything pro-Britain. Last December's proliferation of the insipid "Happy Holiday" platitude perfected depicted a Britain that can no longer re-affirm its Britishness.

So does multiculturalism work? Can a country accept so many people from foreign cultures and still retain a strong national identity? I'm not sure either way. One in four people living in London (including myself) are not British. Personally, I think London is a wonderfully vibrant, interesting and stimulating place to live. But I don't think it sticks out as being particularly British. If I was to ever leave the area bound by the M25 my perception of things might change (it's a challenge to leave Zone 2 at this stage).

Another little experiment was to ask some British friends when St George's day fell each year. None could answer for sure. Admittedly, this day has not been largely celebrated for some time in England.

No reasonable person would subscribe to the British nationalism spouted by the BNP. And this piece is certainly not making the case for the dismantling of multi-culture. However, it is not reckless to say that Britain is in the grip of an identity crisis.

tags:britain

Published by Colm.  

This what I'll look like when I'm older apparently (presumably, headphones will look stupid in 2050). Go to the Perception Laboratory's Face Transformer and see what you would look like if you were black, white, a female, a male, from East Asia, from West Asia and so on. Hours of fun.

tags:morph

Published by Colm.  

tags:fionn regan

Published by Colm.  

A woman I knew regularly took the opportunity to deride the beautiful game of soccer by describing it as nothing more than grown men running around a field after a ball of air. To my mind, horse racing is a bunch of four-footed animals mounted by men of stunted growth chasing each other around a field, sometimes jumping over a ditch.

Anyway, here are some more sage words on the sport from a guy who's spent many a Cheltenham smashing up B&Bs, drinking with RTE personalities and making a show of Offaly. He'd prefer to remain incognito, so we'll give him a similar name. Ladies and gents, I hand you over to Adrian Harrington.

The biggest question going into the festival this year will be can Kauto Star safely negotiate his way around the Cotswolds? And if he does, will he annihilate his opponents as he has done this season already? The most probable answer is a resounding yes. Even though he does not jump that well, Kauto Star seems to have the athleticism to recover. When One Knight won in Cheltenham four years ago, he almost flattened every fence and gave all his punters, including this one, many an anxious moment as he approached each jump. It argues well that these fences, as tough as they are, may be negotiable for the still progressive Kauto.

Another factor is the opposition. Although War of Attrition‘s Gold Cup win last year was memorable, he has been a bit of a disappointment. After following up in Punchestown, he was expected to dominate this season but we are still waiting for him to produce the goods. The ground seems to be a problem but the old saying is a good horse goes on any type of ground. There will be no worries in the Paul Nicholls yard what way the weather is in early March. If War of Attrition jumps the last and Kauto Star is still in with a fighting chance, it will be a much more difficult assignment than taking on last year's runner up Hedgehunter and Michael O Brian’s Forget the Past.

Forget the Past’s stable mate, In Compliance may be this year's hype horse. He is still unproven over three miles and there may be a slight doubt over his jumping. An interesting prospect alright but that long Cheltenham hill might end Barry Geraghty's chances. A drop in trip not out of the question here. Beef or Salmon will try again and this would be my idea of an each-way chance - he obviously sees Cheltenham in the same way Mayo footballers see Croke Park on All-Ireland final day.

But, like Mayo, the quality is there and Beef or Salmon will stay going up the hill unlike many others. Last year's run can be discarded as the horse obviously was not happy before the start, a faller in the first year and was staying on well behind Best Mate the following year. If you take out The Listener who revelled in the heavy ground in The Lexus Chase during Christmas, Beef or Salmon had War of Attrition well beaten. Not bad for a 25/1 shot who has now beaten the Gold Cup Champion twice in the one year; who can forget that memorable race in Down Royal?

State of Play, Hedgehunter and Our Vic will all have their each-way support but it is still hard to judge if they really are up to Gold Cup Class. Our Vic may have the quality but there is a big question on stamina.

For this punter, there will be only one winner come next March. At 6/4 the value may be gone on Kauto Star but I would feel safer putting my sterling on The Charlie Hall, Tingle Creek and King George winner than anything else. History usually repeats itself and when Kauto rattled the last at Kempton one could only remember a short two years previously when Kicking King tried the same trick and somehow managed to come off safe. Kicking King stormed home the following March and expect the new star of national hunt racing to do the same. So it's Paul Nicholls Kauto Star to win easily and the people’s champion Beef or Salmon the each-way bet.

For all the punters who still fancy War of Attrition you can back an Irish treble of War of Attrition (Gold Cup), Brave Inca (Champion Hurdle) and Newmill (Champion Chase) to repeat last years treble at 125/1. GET ON!!


tags:kauto

Published by Colm.  

As you are all aware, Ireland are about to embark on a Six Nation’s rugby campaign generating public fervour and interest the likes of which hasn’t been seen before. With so many once in a generation type players lining out in green we’ve never had it so good. With all that's been written in the last days and weeks it's hard to keep your feet on the ground.

In order to focus some of the brute force of this mass public sporting convulsion that is about to wash over the country I’d like to give you all an opportunity to display your tipping skills. Fantasy/Shmantasy, we’ve all been there and done that with the soccer, and we sure don’t need people from other footballing codes coming into our blog arena and telling us how to run our tipping games.

So instead of Fantasy Rugby, I’ve got something altogether simpler and less involved. On each of the five match weekends over the course of the competition, all you’ve got to do is guess the scoreline in each of the three matches that weekend. This will soon show up those who know their truck-and-trailers from their rolling mauls, or in my case, blatantly expose my predilection for putting heart before head when it comes to rugby analysis. Results and standings in the competition will be published here after each match weekend. Of course there will be a token prize for the winner, I know Colm is working feverishly to come up with something fitting the one who would be king of Rugby tipping on In Fact, Ah.

Now, the specific scoring rules of the game are a little more involved (see below) than all that for you detail hounds, but essentially you are rewarded for guessing as close as possible to the correct scores for the three games on each of the five match weekends.

I shall post on here each Thursday morning preceeding the five match weekends inviting you to predict, you simply leave your prediction in the comments section of the post and I’ll take it from there. I’ll leave my prediction first off each week and please copy my format (A unique name for yourself in the competition, 3 matches predictions with home teams first) when posting your prediction to make the totting up easier on yours truly.

Once I post each Thursday morning asking for your predictions for that week, you have until 3p.m. on Friday to get your prediction in. I’ll be taking a snapshot of the predictions at that time.

EDIT:As this is the first weekend I will make an exception and accept predictions for match weekend 1 until midday Saturday Feb 3rd.

Match Weekend 1, please leave your predictions as comments to this post before midday Saturday 3rd Feb:

Italy –v- France
England –v- Scotland
Wales –v- Ireland

Finally, for the rugby enthusiasts among you I’d like to point you in the direction of the irishrugby yahoo group and mailing list, where you can find detailed, thorough, inside-track and ultimately very informative banter and chat regarding all things that are both rugby and Irish.

My thanks go to Michael Halpenny who runs this same competition on the irishrugby yahoo group for his support.

The competition scoring and rules are as follows:

Lowest score wins the competition. The difference between your scoreline for each team is added to your competition points score. i.e. if you predict Ireland 14 - 10 Italy and the actual score is Ireland 10 - 21 Italy then you will get 25 points broken down as follows: 4 points (14 - 10) i.e. the difference between your prediction for Ireland’s score and their actual score + 11 points (21 - 10) i.e. the difference between your prediction for Italy’s score and their actual score. There is also a penalty of 10 points for getting the winning team wrong, so your total score would be 4+11+10 = 25

As mentioned above if you get the winning team wrong you get another 10 points.
If by some fluke you get the reverse score i.e. right scores but wrong winning team you get minus 10 points. The person with the most accurate prediction for each match (after the above 10 point bonuses are taken into account) gets minus -10 points. If you predict the exact correct score for a game you get -30 points. If you fail to predict the score of any match you will get the default prediction (0 - 0). In the unlikely event that two people are tied at the end of the 5 rounds then whoever’s prediction appears first in the comments for the final match weekend will be declared the winner.

The official deadline for predictions is Friday 3p.m. before the match weekend. Please do not post multiple predictions for one match weekend, if you do I will choose one of your predictions arbitrarily. I am not responsible for predicitions that go missing, please ensure your prediction has posted successfully to the comments section.

Any decision I make regarding this competition will be final and no correspondence on my decisions will be entered into.


tags: rugby, six nations

Published by Paul.