It feels like Spring is round the corner, the days are noticeably longer and it seems to me that the matches often are played in bright sunshine.There used to be just five nations, while I was growing up, but conveniently for me, Italy joined the tournament in the year 2000, so I can enjoy watching the matches here.
To begin with, Italians were enthusiastic about being a part of it all. In their first match, they unexpectedly beat Scotland, and the odds were 200 to 1. Nobody fell for that again, and they are now considered a worthwhile opponent. For a while the tournament was televised live on Italian television with great enthusiasm and panache on the part of the studio. General interest began to wane, after a long session of defeats, and it was taken off, and only shown afterwards. The only way to watch it live was on Satellite Tv.
This afternoon, I was looking after my 11 month old granddaughter, she found the remote control and started pressing the knobs. She "discovered" a channel called DMax or something, that was televising Ireland-Scotland live. It was just about to start, so I picked her up and we watched the anthems together. The sight of those happy looking men, wearing brightly coloured shirts and singing their hearts out, was enough for her to relax completely in my arms and go to sleep on my shoulder.
I carried on watching, the commentators were very entertaining. At half time, they said that Scotland never have a Plan B. They only ever have a Plan A. Then they went on to talk about bagpipes and kilts, and the eternal question of what Scotsmen wear underneath. Maybe that's their Plan B, take them by surprise.
Just in case you are wondering about my friend that is stuck in Arabba, I got a text from her saying she had had a leg massage and was in the bar. Thank goodness for dopo sci.
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