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Friday night's alright for....

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Carl Hicks Carl Hicks | 11:24 UK time, Thursday, 3 February 2011

Yes folks, it's almost that time again...the New Year resolutions are well and truly broken, your booze ban is over and there's just a hint of light at the end of the dark tunnel. It must be kick-off for that annual festival of rugby union that is the .

And what a start it should be on Friday night - yes Friday night - when Martin Johnson's England will head over the Severn Bridge to take on Wales in front of what Johnno himself describes as the most intimidating atmosphere in world rugby.

The match is live on 91Èȱ¬1 from 7.30pm, but live from 7.00pm on 91Èȱ¬1 Wales and the Red Button for an extra-long build-up for what should be a crucial game in shaping the next seven weeks. The coverage will be hosted by John Inverdale, with Jonathan Davies and Jerry Guscott.

Adam Rhys Jones scores for Wales in last year's game against England at Twickenham - photo: Getty

It's difficult to over-hype the significance of this battle in Cardiff. With three home games to follow, England will believe that a win against the Welsh could set them on the road to on the way to that World Cup triumph down under.

And as Welsh fly-half Stephen Jones pointed out this week, both of Wales's recent Grand Slam seasons in and started with hard-fought victories over the English.

Indeed England have not returned victorious from the principality since that win in 2003.

Principality? Hmm, not sure we are really allowed to say that - and our opening on Friday evening will give you some indication as to why.

John Inverdale has visited a number of sites to try and explain the ancient antipathy towards the English. famously sang "as long as we beat the English" - and in the name of rugby that has been a driving passion in South Wales for over a century.

Also watch out for a fascinating feature in which messrs Butler, Davies, Guscott and Moore debate that rivalry and the great moments of Wales v England conflicts over the past few decades.

Coach Warren Gatland understands how this passion drives the Welsh and the Kiwi has been winding up the English in the past couple of weeks - or more accurately their New Zealand-born hooker Dylan Hartley.

Gatland joked that he had promised the 91Èȱ¬ an audience of eight million for the first game and needed to crank the pre-match publicity up a bit - and what with £50m footballers occupying the front and back pages we are with you all the way Mr Gatland!

The boy Dylan gets his say in our programme in an interview that is up on the 91Èȱ¬ Six Nations website (and you can watch it below).

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On Saturday, there is double-header of matches live on 91Èȱ¬ 1. is off to Italy, with Ireland starting in Rome where they are unbeaten (91Èȱ¬1, 2pm), and then last year's Grand Slam champions France hosting Scotland (KO 5pm) - who are once again many pundits' choice to upset le panier de pommes after victory over South Africa and two in Argentina since they thwarted Irish triple crown hopes at the end of last season.

The first of our popular Red Button forums will also come from Paris (7.00pm Saturday) where we will reflect back on the first weekend's action.

As usual, the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage embraces all platforms - and is well under way online, on the Red Button, via Scrum V in Wales and on News 24. On each match day the Red Button will also have alternative commentary options and match edits after each game as well as being the home of our Forums.

Watch out tonight for Radio 5's preview show from near Bridgend - and I say 'watch' advisedly, because you can view the show live via the 91Èȱ¬ website too.

It will be co-hosted by Gareth Thomas, a Pencoed man himself, and Matt Dawson, with special guests including Gareth Edwards, Phil Vickery and our own Brian Moore.

Our Brian is set to be more ubiquitous than ever during this Championship. You may have seen Scrum V's excellent "Brian Moore's Head" challenge in which players, pundits and all sorts have taking on the task of passing balls through the mouth of our award-winning commentator's outsize head.

Well, this feature goes international over the next few weeks with someone from each of the six nations trying to become the winner of a not-so-handsome trophy!

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And speaking of international matters, if you are reading this blog in the US, 91Èȱ¬ America will have live coverage of one match each weekend throughout the Six Nations taking the event to over 68 million homes across the USA.

The first match on offer is France v Scotland on Saturday (from 11.30 ET & 8.30 PT). Who needs the Super Bowl says a disgruntled NY Jets fan!

Actually, in the Super Bowl this Sunday (91Èȱ¬1, 10.55pm), the Green Bay Packers have to take on the whole of 'Steeler Nation' as Pittsburgh like to title themselves. Martin Johnson, a huge NFL fan, features in a 91Èȱ¬ documentary (Saturday 91Èȱ¬1 1.00pm) on the event, hosted by his namesake Michael Johnson.

And this Friday no one will know better than Johnno that his England team also have to take on a whole nation when they cross the white line in Cardiff. Good luck to all.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Apparently it is hard to over hype tomorrow night's fixture. Well by lord are the 91Èȱ¬ giving it a go.

    I am far from a 91Èȱ¬ detractor, I am proud of it. However, the relentless focus of seemingly all bloggers on predominantly the England team, but also the match itself is nauseating.

    I appreciate there are more 91Èȱ¬ shareholders in England than anywhere else, but is Scotland's home match against the France not worthy of at least one blog instead of the Eng v Wal barrage.

    As an Irish fan I would love to see one on them that isn't Keith Wood, who I respect but it is always nice to hear a fresh POV. However, away to Italy in fairness isn't the most glamorous pre-match blog to write and I understand why there are none, but Murrayfield's game carries the same level of importance as Cardiff's does. Perhaps even more given France are the most talented team in the competition, and favourites if on form.

  • Comment number 2.

    @Cyberryan87

    The Wales-England match is between two home nations, where as Scotland are playing France, so considering that, I can see why there is more about the match in Cardiff, although I agree that there should be something on the Murrayfield match.

  • Comment number 3.

    France v Scotland is in Paris, not that that detracts from your arguement.

  • Comment number 4.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 5.

    The only way the other home nations can get plenty of copy written about them is by playing England. Let's be honest @yddraigcymraeg, if Wales were playing Scotland on Friday night, and England were playing anyone else, (France and Italy included) the conversations would be about the latter game, not the former.

  • Comment number 6.

    This game is getting far too much attention ahead of kikck off. I concur with earlier comments this is a six nations tourney! - let's have some other exposure here. The Hartley thing has been done to death - and the players become unwitting fodder for the press unfortunately.

  • Comment number 7.

    Brian Moore is why people mute the TV and listen on the radio. The 91Èȱ¬ could do with a freshen up. See also Jonathan Davies.... while im at it Inverdale can be rather patronising aswell....

  • Comment number 8.

    Goodness me people. Cheer up! It's the first day of a long tournament in World Cup year and as far as I can see, it could be a really close call as everyone is scratching about for a bit of form/consistency. The potential for another classic rugby 6 Nations. Are any of you looking forward to this competition, or just content to have a whinge?! Concerning commentary, we had been spoiled rotten for years listening to Bill, so no-one's going to compare now that he's sadly not with and our memories are still strong.

    Now satellite telly's here to stay, recently i had to turn to turn to Scrum V to watch any rugby (before 11 pm) outside of tournaments (with an oddly Welsh bias for some reason),or go to the pub to watch England play, so a big thanks to the beeb for showing all the games once again. I'm just happy to have access to the best rugby tournament in the world despite who's whittering on.

  • Comment number 9.

    Precisely pipefish, I am really happy that the 91Èȱ¬ are showing all matches live and available on iPlayer. In these days of Sky television, then I do genuinely wonder what affect it has on younger generations when sporting events are not on free to all channels.

    I distinctly remember watching the tournament and listening to Bill McClaren's commentary (what a legend he was - RIP) and getting inspired to take up the sport as a 6 year old. 24 years on and I play every Saturday, having never realising my dream of becoming the next Dean Richards, and I am very excited at the prospect, not just of tonight's match, but the tournament as a whole.

    I applaud the build up that the 91Èȱ¬ has provided and spent a good couple of hours last night watching the content on the website - archive footage, pundits preview, player interviews - no doubt some will class it as overkill, but you can't please all of the people. Just be rest assured that I, for one, am very appreciative of the build coverage so far and can't wait for the actual matches to start !!!

  • Comment number 10.

    Please don't call my country a principality, gwarthus.

  • Comment number 11.

    at last a major sporting event live on the beeb.well done ,worth at least 25% of the licence fee to me.have looked forward to this for a while.more of the same please.

  • Comment number 12.

    Great game and great coverage on the 91Èȱ¬ tonight. A really tremendous advertisement for Rugby Union in primetime on a Friday night. I enjoyed every second of it.

  • Comment number 13.

    A great start to this years 6nations however would like to make one small comment on the build-up when it comes to announcing the teams. Poor ole Italy only got pop-ups when everyone else got flash 'turn-and-pose' sections and what happened to an italian commentor??

    I know Italy were the last ones in and you are reporting about the home nations but France got a great build up but what about poor Italy. Come on 91Èȱ¬ please make it equal.....if Italy only had won - wow what a match!!!

    As a hardened supportor and ex-player, I have loved seeing Italy move up in the game and now that they have 2 teams in the Magners League it is really great for the game in Italy but please help them by reporting equally on all teams now matter how trivial it might seem.

  • Comment number 14.

    This wanted to say how great the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage was on Friday night. England/Wales is always my favourite fixture of the championship its a shame that it always seems to be first, anyone know why that is?

    Especially good to see Sonja back after missing the autumn internationals.

    Although I had to change my plans for Friday to see the match its a shame there will be no Friday night matches for the next couple of years. I think one a year was about right and they are much better than Sunday afternoons.

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