22/2/15

Dear Diary,

Traveling to Christchurch today so I’m up early catch the plane. Having a quick cup of tea before I leave the Bed and Breakfast, the landladies cat, who has been friendly but barely given me a second glance the entire time I’ve been here, comes sits on my lap and promptly makes herself comfortable and falls asleep. Oh cat, you've had four days to do this type of thing, why do you wait until the minute I have to leave? “Don't get too comfortable”, I say to the cat, “you’ve only ten minutes of this before I boot you off and leave.” Forty minutes later I eventually wake a sleeping cat and end up with a claw in the knee for my impudence but continue to make the move towards the front door. A last look at the view (even with an overcast sky it is still a sight to behold) before I head out to catch the airport bus.

I've received a few messages recently asking if I feel better about Scotland's performance against New Zealand now that England have received an even greater thumping from them. The answer I come to is Yes. Yes I do. I was pretty disappointed with Scotland's performance against the Kiwis and I still think we should have done better, but England who are supposedly better than most, performed much worse than Scotland and looked more bruised and disheartened about it than Scotland did. We didn't have many answers against the Kiwis either but at least we kept our heads up and kept trying to turn the game our way. England looked out of their depth from the very first moment the onslaught started. Scotland kept up the competition right to the bitter end meanwhile England were uncompetitive almost from the start. So yes. Yes I do feel better about Scotland's performance against the Kiwis now that England performed worse against the same team. The result still hurts but we came out of it better and holding our heads higher than the old enemy.

Speaking of which, the big grudge match is less than a day away now. Scotland V. England. Both teams coming of the back of a mauling by New Zealand, both teams looking for their first victory in the comp, both teams looking to get off the bottom of the table, and both nations looking to get one over their antagonistic neighbors !!!

Under most normal circumstances you’d have to say that England would be the favourite, but they have just come of a soul crushing defeat only two days ago and the wounds are still fresh in the entire teams mind and body. Scotland's crushing defeat came almost a week ago, they are over it now. Fresh bodies and relaxed minds preparing with plenty of time for one of the high profile matches they will have targeted for many months. On the surface at least Scotland look to have the better of the circumstances.

England have been the associate nations friend in world events recently losing to the dutch (twice) and Ireland as well. But the antagonistic nature of the relationship between them and us Scot's is such that it’s almost certain that they will raise their game against us ... just to spite us!

Meanwhile Scotland have a tendency to start competitions slowly and also to give it away when things get really tough.

The upcoming game will be a tough one for both nations especially considering the pressure that is starting to mount on both of them. England need to start getting some points on the board or run the risk of not making the quarter finals. Scotland need to win their first game at a world cup ever to start to be taken seriously as rising challengers.

Both teams will see this game as their best chance to achieve their goals yet and this should make it a real humdinger of a match.

As for picking the favourite, I may be biased, but I’m picking Scotland.

Hope the weather holds out!



"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it." Jules Renard - (1864 - 1910)