Meet Grandy McSlam…the official Six Nations mascot to the Pagano household.
You see him above in his lofty perch at Dicey Reilly’s pub on Harcourt St in Dublin where he resided throughout the nail-biting thrillfest that was the Six Nations decider at the Millenium Stadium last March.
So…what are the chances of repeating?
Well I’ll tell you…nothing makes me want to smash a radio more these days than hearing a sports bulletin where the reader refers to the fact that “Ireland would be the first to win back-to-back Grand Slam titles since France in 1998”. I’m as superstitious as any Irish fan and I’m even thinking I’ve hurt our chances by typing out that sentence on my blog at all!
We need to appreciate just how difficult a back-to-back Grand Slam is. For one thing, there’s the obvious fact that as reigning champions you can be sure that the other 5 nations will see you as the team to beat. But this tournament has the added flavour of the reversal of the fixtures, so if you are to beat everyone again, you must do so on a different ground.
But having said all of that, if we’re EVER going to win 5 out of 5 for a second year running, this is the year we could do it. Sure, we’ve had a few injuries, but our talent pool has never been as deep as it is now and we seem to have adequate cover at every position, even in 1st-cappers like Kevin McLaughlin.
Plus there’s the fact that the other nations are having a few problems of their own. Wales are down two quality scrum-halves, England are, well, being led by a man who would play the entire World Cup winning XV from 2003 if he could, and the French will always leave you guessing what XV they’re going to play on any given day.
I know I was a bit mean to the hopes of Scotland and Italy with that last sentence, but although I do believe the Scots will cause an upset somewhere and emerge with 2 victories in this campaign, even their most avid fans couldn’t put either in the frame for 1st place this year and keep a straight face.
So, what does that mean our task is this coming weekend? Simple. We have to make sure we’re in 1st place on the table come Sunday evening. And since we’re up first, to do this we must come out all guns blazing against the Italians and put them to the sword.
No more of this pussy-footing around our chances of success, I say. If you can’t believe in a team coached by someone of Declan Kidney’s pedigree, who CAN you believe in?
COME ON IRELAND!!!
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