The Aviva stadium is the ground-up replacement for the dilapidated old Lansdowne Road ground which sits in south-east Dublin and hugs the DART train line as it heads out of the city towards the coast and the seaside town of Bray. It's an impressive looking structure, although it holds just under 52,000 so I am guessing it may be a little bit underwhelming when you are actually there in comparison to some of the other more recent big ground builds like Wembley, the Emirates. and the Olympic Stadium. The fact that there were under 20,000 there for the game last night suggests the Irish may have called it right in terms of sizing.
Back to the Carling Nations Cup then, and if you are English, you could forgiven what wondering what it's all about or when England were likely to feature. Well, if you are unclear, England declined the offer from the Scots, Welsh and two Irish FA's to join a new Home International tournament so they have taken their ball and set-up their own competition.
The English FA have more lucrative fish to fry but given the disappointing performance of their national side in recent competitions, I wonder whether this might have been a good competition for England as well as a generous way of helping their smaller home associations. Perhaps the 4 Nations will become the 5 Nations at the next time of asking?
I can't say I have been able to muster much enthusiasm for it so far. It's a strange time to hold the starting couple of games when the league season is in full flow and when the rugby 6 Nations is going on and with the rest of the fixture scheduled for May.
Having said that, a good number of my Scotland-travelling friends are making a trip over to Dublin for one of the Scotland matches, although their motivation appears, primarily, to clock up an "away point" so it might improve their chances of getting a ticket the Autumn's hottest tartan footballing fixture in Spain as we renew European Championship qualifications. I will be travelling to Spain but going to Dublin first just to improve my chances of a ticket is a no-no.
It you are interested in tuning in, the games are all evening kick-offs as follows...
Wednesday 9th February - Northern Ireland v Scotland
Tuesday 24th May - Republic of Ireland v Northern Ireland
Wednesday 25th May - Scotland v Wales
Friday 27th May - Northern Ireland v Wales
Sunday 29th May - Republic of Ireland v Scotland
Thanks for highlighting this competition Dave. I was going to write on it but run out of time.
ReplyDeleteI used to love the home internationals and surely England would be better served playing competitive games against Scotland and ROI than friendlies against Denmark and Ghana?
I hope the FA see the error of their ways and count us in for next season's competition.