Predictions

I reckon this weekend's round of 6 nations games is the easiest to call in a long time.

France to whallop Scotland
Wales to easily beat England
Ireland to run up a cricket score against Italy

Compare and Contrast

Mon 9th Feb : How dare RBS pay any bonuses to its staff ? They are all lazy, corrupt thieves and should be fired, pay back all past bonuses and be publicly flogged.

Wed 11th Feb : How dare RBS lay off 2,300 of its hard-working staff ? These people are not responsible for the credit crunch and without them the bank would have collapsed. They deserve better treatment.

(c) All media

Public Transport

Bus fucked due to Brazil v Italy @ Emiratesn had to walk with dodgy ankle.

Tube fucked., took 25 minutes for what should take 12. Kicked us off the train at Seven Sisters, had to change platforms.

Train fucked. No mention of Tottenham Hale being fucked when we were at Seven Sisters and could have changed, so back we all go. Half-expected no trains from there either, but instead just missed one by seconds, probably half an hour to the next one.

Now I am going to have to call my missus to come and give me a lift from wherever I end up to my normal station in order to pick up my car.

I am officially fucked off.

Changing of the Seasons

Having live tweeted the Superbowl, I can't be bothered to re-hash it all - besides, I had a fair bit of beer and wine, so I don't exactly have crystal clear quality of recall. Great game though - I think that Larry Fitzgerald catch and run was the most excited I've ever been in a Superbowl not featuring the Patriots.

And so the American football season ends. Unless you count the Pro Bowl, which I don't as it's played in Hawaii and is on at too ridiculous a time even for me. Apparently they're moving it back to a rotation on the mainland next year AND moving it two weeks earlier, so it falls in the off week between the conference championships and the Superbowl. Drawback of that is, it reduces the chance of Superbowl-bound players taking part from slim to none. But generally that's only about 2/3 per side max anyway. So next year, I may tune in.

Sweeping in to take its place in my sporting consciousness is the Six Nations. My wife always complains that I'm following something intently at any given moment, and in this case she's right. Will do a longer preview later, but IMHO Wales find themselves in the unfamiliar territory of being strong favourites, largely because England and France are currently trying to identify which players from the new crop are Test standard, which seems to be harder now than ever, and finding a cohesive pattern for them to follow.

Could be worse

So Villa's run of good form and fortune stutters at home again. It could be worse - we didn't lose, Ashely Young's suspension is now over, and Carew came off the bench to feature for the first time in months.

Most importantly, neither Arsenal nor Everton won to close the gap. All right, United won again, but they're likely to go on a ridiculous winning streak to the end of the season anyway and I never saw us staying with them.

Liverpool play Chelsea today, and like Arsenal v Everton in mid-week, there's no such thing as a bad result - we will be level on points with the loser, and a draw will see us breathing down the necks of both.

I still see us ending the season in a dogfight with Arsenal or Everton, depending on how badly our form falls away. The trouble with raised expectations is, anything lowere than fourth will now be seen as a disappointment.

This Twitter lark

So I've been checking out Twitter, and have started out by following Stephen Fry and Iain Dale.

Fry has been tweeting a bloody darts commentary tonight. Stephen Fry. Watches darts.I kid you not. Tomorrow, the Queen will probably send me an email saying how much she likes TV Burp.

I swear I've gone fucking mad. If Sid Waddell pops up on Dave presenting QI, I'll know for sure.

Superbowl Preview

As I always do at this time of year, I've booked Monday off so I can stay up all night to watch the Superbowl. This year's extravaganza is in Tampa Bay, featuring Bruce Springsteen as the half-time entertainment.

In the red corner, representing the NFC, are, amazingly, the Arizona Cardinals. The perennial losers of the NFL limped into the playoffs at 9-7 after clinching an appallingly weak division with 4 weeks to go. Nobody gave them a prayer - me included - but deserved wins over Atlanta, Carolina and Philadelphia means they are there on merit. They have a very well-balanced offence, with two quality and diverse running backs, a former MVP and superbowl winning QB, and arguably the best receiver in the game, Larry Fitzgerald. However it is the defence that has been responsible for the turnaround in form, forcing an incredible number of interceptions, particularly from Jake Delhomme.

The AFC champions, who will be wearing white, are the Pittsburgh Steelers. They have a functional rather than exciting offence, but an incredibly mean and aggressive defence, and they'll be hoping to become the first franchise to win six superbowls.

The key to the game, as it so often is in Superbowls, will be at the line. If Arizona can protect Warner and punch enough holes to allow James and/or Hightower to keep the linebackers honest, then they have the weapons to damage Pittsburgh. If the Steelers can shut down the running game and force Warner to throw under pressure into that magnificent secondary, it'll be Pick City.

So for me, the game could go one of two ways. It'll either be a low scoring nail-biter like last year, or a complete blowout in favour of Pittsburgh. I'll be rooting for Arizona, but having tipped Pittsburgh at the start of the play-offs, I see no reason to change that now, and I think it'll be one game too far for the Cardinals.

Pittsburgh by at least two touchdowns.

One two, one two

Ok, let's see if the Blackberry is up to it.

So I've decided to start writing again. Got to find something to do during all these train delays

Grrr, trains. Don't get me started. How can a service that supposedly runs every 15 minutes possibly be 20 minutes late ?