So, I decided to properly get my head around the teams playing in the Six Nations rugby thing. You know the ones – England, Ireland, France, Wales, Scotland, and Italy. Always heard folks talking about it, especially around springtime, but never really got it.
My real dive into it started a couple of years back. Wasn’t exactly planned. I’d managed to twist my ankle quite badly falling down the last two steps of my own stairs. Properly clumsy. Doctor told me to keep my foot up for a solid few weeks. Absolute boredom set in after about day three, stuck on the sofa.
My Accidental Rugby Education
Flipping through channels, watching daytime TV drivel, I kept seeing updates about the Six Nations. Ireland were playing, then England. France seemed to be doing really well that year – think they might have even won it, actually. It happens pretty often for them, from what I gathered later.
Anyway, with nothing better to do, I started looking it up on my phone. Just trying to figure out the basics. Found out the teams involved, obviously:
- England
- Ireland
- Scotland
- Wales
- France
- Italy
Then I got into the weeds a bit. How do they even score this thing? It wasn’t straightforward like football. You get four points just for winning a match. Okay. But then there are bonus points for scoring enough tries, or for losing closely? Seemed a bit much. A draw gets you two points, a loss gets zero, unless it’s a close loss. My head was spinning a bit, trying to track the league table.
And the games themselves! They go on for 80 minutes, split into two halves. But honestly, with all the stoppages and checking things with the video ref, it felt like they lasted forever sometimes. Needed that time to check the confusing rules again, I guess.
During that time laid up, I saw England and Ireland finishing pretty high up too, usually battling it out near the top behind whoever won that year. It became a weird little project for me, figuring out the standings each weekend from my sofa fortress.
Sticking With It
The funny thing is, even after my ankle healed and I could finally escape the house, I kinda kept following it. Not obsessively, but I check the results now. Know who’s playing who. All because I tripped down the stairs. Weird how you pick up new interests when life forces you to slow down, isn’t it?
