C’est Magnifique!
It was a tight run thing, whether we would beat last year’s best ever total raised for Laura Lynn of just a few euro over €17,000.
We were nervously confident on Wednesday night with just under €6k raised. By Friday night our total had gone to €14k. And then from Bangalore and Belmullet, from Minneapolis and Manchester, from Clonee and . . . well you get my drift. You turned out in huge numbers, our biggest ever entry, and made one of the biggest single donations that Laura Lynn will get this year of just over €18,000. Well done you! (And you never know, we might drum up a bit more yet)
To Business
Scotland upset most of our punters last year by giving Ireland a pounding in Murrayfield. They upset most of you again this year by laying down under the Welsh dragon in Cardiff and yielding a 27 point spread in what was meant to be a tight game. Enough of that, Gregor Townsend is away home to think again.
England delivered what was expected, in more style than most of us expected, leaving Italy with a long uphill campaign ahead.
Game of the weekend had to be the newly thrown together French against a much fancied (by the Irish media at least) Irish team. Un-Parisian weather of steady rain damped down proceedings, and the first 77 minutes or so would have sent the uncommitted supporter for the early train out of St Denis. The last 5 minutes though were pure magic, and if you haven’t seen enough of it well, OK, here it is again . . . http://www.rugby365.com/tournaments/six-nations/83134-video-all-41-irish-phases-leading-to-sexton-s-drop-goal
Enough of that I hear you cry, where am I in the table? Well if you go to the Leaderboard you can pick yourself out, and if you go to Forecasts you can check whet you predicted for the rest of the games.
And if you did really well . . .
Best Turned Out
Leading man after the first round, with almost perfect scores for the France and Italy matches, is Britain’s Breeziest Builder, the crafty cockney, Phil Coutts.
“I don’t believe it mate, I’m winning already? I thought it would take me weeks. Better have another bottle of bubbly so” commented an ecstatic Coutts from his club in Mayfair.
Coutts wins the Dornan Engineering Best Turned Out Award, which will be presented by the Dornan CEO Mr Brian Acheson the next time they meet.
In joint second second place, 7 points behind on 44 are James Flynn and Paul Nicholls.
| Week 1 Leader Board | |||
| Name | Total | ||
| 1 | Phil Coutts | 51 | |
| 2 | James Flynn | 44 | |
| 3 | Paul Nicholls | 44 | |
| 4 | Jonathan Cooke | 43 | |
| 5 | Gary Byrne | 40 | |
| 6 | Micheal Hernon | 40 | |
| 7 | Wayne Deegan | 39 | |
| 8 | The Claw | 38 | |
| 9 | Samuel Smith | 37 | |
| 10 | Colm O’Gorman | 36 | |
| 11 | Deco Servo | 36 | |
| 12 | Des O’Broin | 36 | |
| 13 | JJ Cantwell | 36 | |
| 14 | Niall Cox | 36 | |
The chasing pack contains previous Wooden Spoon winner Deco Servo (not his real name for legal reasons) and other long time entrants Wayne Deegan, The Claw Waugh and Des O’Broin.
Strongest in the Pack Award
Just to show no all prizes are for points, this week’s Strongest in the Pack Award from Asset Recruitment goes to Alva Fitzgerald, who currently supports us all from the bottom of the table. “I get a prize for that?” said Fitzgerald, breathlessly whilst supporting a great weight. “If I’d know that I’d have entered twice!” She wins a holiday for two to Bundoran, or the equivalent in cash of €200.
More Prizes
I’m sure there are more prizes but we need to work out the list now all the hard work of setting up the system is done. Our sponsors have once again stumped up and provided us with a rake of cash and a plethora of goodies – we just need to count it and find out where we put them.
More next week. Well done everyone.
