#I'm going to see the rugby with Scotland playing Wales

[eurovision-del]

The final night of Sanremo is happening tonight, and with it we’ll find out who will get first refusal to represent Italy at Eurovision! It’s always a bit of a rush ranking Sanremo songs with how quickly the week goes by, but here’s my feelings based on first impressions:

Rosa Chemical – Made in Italy

Sethu – Cause perse 

Madame – Il bene nel male 

Lazza – Cenere

Elodie — Due

Articolo 31 – Un bel viaggio 

Olly — Polvere

Gianluca Grignani — Quando ti manca il fiato

Ultimo — Alba

Colapesce DiMartino – Splash

Giorgia – Parole dette male 

Will – Stupido 

Colla Zio — Non mi va

Mara Sattei — Duemilaminuti

Marco Mengoni — Due vite

Modà – Lasciami 

Leo Gassmann — Terzo cuore

LDA – Se poi domani 

Shari – Egoista 

Cugini di Campagna — Lettera 22

Paola e Chiara – Furore 

Tananai – Tango

Ariete — Mare di guai

Coma_Cose — L’addio

Anna Oxa — Sali

Gianmaria — Mostro

Levante – Vivo 

Mr. Rain — Supereroi

I didn’t have time to follow the shows live, instead just watching the performances from night one and two the morning after the show. I enjoyed night one well enough, but found the night two songs much stronger, broadly speaking! All my top four came from there!

My absolute favourite entry this year is Made in Italy. I was hooked on this song just from the guy in the orchestra doing the announcer bit at the start, and it only got better from there! I love the unique sound it's got, the electro swing beat is very catchy and works unexpectedly well with the rap! It's got a chaotic energy to it, there's a lot going on, yet it never feels messy. Though I have to admit I nearly lost it when he started scatting! The song moves at such a pace and I enjoy every second of it, so it ends up feeling much shorter to me than it is! I could honestly listen to this on repeat. And I absolutely love his aesthetic, his outfit was so good.  

There’s not as much separating the rest of my top five. I really enjoyed Cause perse, it’s got that pop punk sound to it, very energetic, it gets me hyped up! I only wish it were longer! Next, I loved Madame’s song Voce in 2021, and still listen to it regularly, but I might honestly prefer Il bene nel male. The sound is exciting and a little tense, it draws me into it. I think the production is great, and Madame’s voice is fantastic, she really knows how to perform. Speaking of good production, Cenere is one of the best produced songs here. I especially love that isolated bass right before the chorus, and it helps that I also really like the sound of Lazza’s voice. My final stand out from this selection is Elodie with Due, I don’t think it’s as strong a song as her previous entry, Andromeda, but I still enjoyed it a lot, and Elodie is a fantastic artist.

I would love to see any of these five songs at Eurovision, but, as usual, Italy is pretty spoiled for choice! There’s plenty of other great songs further down my list which could serve them very well at the contest. I reckon they’ve definitely got the quality here to maintain their top 10 streak, and I'm excited to see what they send!

[oumaheroes]

I miss the UK bros, how are they doing this time of day? Getting into trouble? Fighting? Getting absolutely pissed drunk and singing as they walk home? Fighting? How are my boys?

~Izzy

I'm very glad you asked 😌

This fic also relates way back to that poll I had, wherein I asked people who they wanted to see Wales written with in a small fic. The answer was a brother, so I chose North!

Characters: Wales, Northern Ireland, UK Bros referenced

Warnings for graphic details of butchery

------------------------------

Art Show

‘So, do you think I should ask them?’

‘I think they’ll be offended if you don’t.’

‘Yeah, but should I.’

Wales looked up from the dead sheep he was laying out on the old fashioned stone table and wiped his forehead with the back of his arm, ‘Do what you want, love. It’s your art show.’

‘Yeah but that’s you saying that there’s still a right answer.’ Leant against the rough outside brick of the barn nearby, North spun his mobile between his forefinger and thumb, the screen a dark mirror catching the sun.

With a far brighter flash of light, Wales picked up his boning knife from its spot on the table and wiped the back of it on his overalls. North eyed it, then the dead sheep, and ignored the urge to head back inside.

‘There’s not a right answer,’ Wales said slowly, ‘I’m just telling you that they will be upset if you don’t invite us.’

‘You’re invited.’

‘If you don’t invite all of us.’ Wales gave him a pointed look, conveying to him the need to honour a long-held understanding (long, at least, to North’s lifetime) that there were certain things that must be done As A Family. To exclude one or more of them from one of these unspoken events was a sure-fire way to surface old grudges North didn’t even want to try to understand. Annoyingly, most of these events involved himself.

‘I think it will be nice.’ Wales offered to the silence. ‘You and your friends’ work all hung up in a proper gallery, a chance to walk around your college. We could even go for dinner afterwards. Like...’

Wales stopped himself, maybe hearing the impossible wish in his words that made North feel embarrassed and hungry for it at the same time. Silently, Wales twisted the sheep to the position he wanted it and then, in one practised movement, slit the whole thing from throat to groin. North gagged and turned away.

Wales clucked at him in concern, gaze still focused on the sheep and the knife, ‘Are you alright?’

North didn’t trust himself to speak. He clamped his jaw tightly shut, turning back to focus on the green hills beyond the farm over Wales’ shoulder, and gave him a thumbs up.

‘It’s nice of you to watch but you really don’t have to.’

North had offered to help him, actually. Wales was very kind to omit that.

‘Alisdair will think it’s pointless.’ North continued thickly, watching Wales skin the sheep in a few quick, strong tugs, his shoulders tightening and broadening under his baggy shirt before softening away again.

‘Oh, he can piss off. He just doesn’t know what to do with himself in a place like that.’

‘He thinks me being in college at all is stupid.’

‘He’s a hypocrite. He’s had human friends before. And more human lives than I can count.’

‘He might not even come.’

‘He will.’

That’s what North was actually worried about. He knew all of them would turn up if he asked them to, they had for everything else. School plays when he was much younger, football and rugby games, sessions in parliament- there was always one of them present in all of his early achievements. Older now though, it felt strange. North didn’t know what was worse, Scotland grumbling and picking fault in the entire thing and North’s enjoyment of it, or maybe Patrick finding it all amusing. Like a hobby or passing fancy North had picked up, rather than anything to be taken seriously. It was only an end of year art show, for a module he took only because some of his friends had chosen it, but he’d found that he’d liked it. He’d worked hard on his final piece and wanted that to be recognised.

The idea of them all together, in a place he had chosen and cultivated separately for himself, felt too much like a clashing of two worlds that he was averse to see coming together. With their different accents and odd turns of phrase, they were a hard thing to normalise and explain away even if they did behave themselves.

Wales waved his knife towards the smaller building that bordered the barn, ‘I’ve left the slop bucket behind. Fetch it for me?’

‘I don’t know why you have to do this yourself.’ North called behind him as he jogged over to the door, ‘It’d be easier to take them to the butchers when they need to go.’

‘It’s important to do things yourself sometimes,’ Wales said simply when he returned. He dropped some gory looking shapes into the bucket, and they hit the bottom with a wet smack. The meaty smell of them made North feel sick, ‘You forget things if you don’t practise- easy to take the new alternatives for granted. And it always tastes better when you’re part of the process, more like how I remember.’

Wales looked at him and then back to the sheep, ‘Don’t leave anything to waste, if you can help it. This’ll make a lovely mutton stew; keep me going for days.’

North stared into the bucket warily, not feeling very hungry at all.

‘I‘d enjoy myself if I went.’ Wales said, his hand back somewhere North couldn’t look at for too long, ‘I really want to go, and I know they would do too, if they knew about it. We’ve never had many chances to enjoy small things like this for what they are.’

North toed the grass, feeling uncomfortable, ‘I suppose I could ask Alisdair when we go to the gig next week. See what he says and then tell Arthur and Patrick.’

Wales gave him a wide smile. Something inside the sheep cracked, ‘I think that’s a wonderful way to do it.’

‘You can't take any pictures though.’

Wales’ smile dropped, ‘Why?’

‘All of my friends will be there; no one else will be doing it.’

‘Of course they will.’

‘Not as many as you do.’

Wales rolled his eyes, ‘How about the small camera? My “digi-cam”- I can take that?’

‘No one uses those anymore.’

Wales pulled a face, ‘I’m sure they do. I only got that a few years ago.’

‘It was at least 15.’

Wales shrugged, unbothered, and dropped a few more horrible looking things into the slop bucket, ‘My camera phone then.’ Then, when North made a noise- ‘and I’ll only ask for one posed one.’

‘Fine.’

[bottomoftheriverbed]

Being a very very very casual sports watcher means that who I support is entirely based on who my family supports or where I have family from so I've never seen a cricket match but I know I support Somerset (even though I'm not from Somerset) cause my Grandad supports Somerset (he is from Somerset). I've never seen a non international football match but I know I support Rovers not city because I was asked once and didn't know what to say so i mentally tossed a coin and said city and when I got home I was immediately told that was not the right answer.

[witches-unruly-heart]

Not a fic question, so I'll ask it here. What is about rugby that draws you to the sport? If you could play it, which position would you play? What's your team? and how long have you been into rugby?

Hey nonny! Boi have you opened a can of worms! So buckle up 🤣

What draws me to rugby has to be how it's a Hooligan's sport played by gentlemen. 9 out of 10 times when shit hits the fan on the field they will shake hands after and appologize. You would hardly ever see that in football. Sure it looks hella violent, but that's one of the reasons why the game is so interesting!

If I could play I would be the ref 😂 Nah I'm kidding, I'd probably want to be the full-back. I think I would love to try out the game, even if I'd probably be bad at it with how terrible my back and knees are 😅

My team is the Welsh Rugby Union. Norway doesn't have a rugby team (anymore), and even if we did, I don't think we were that good 😅 I don't know specifically why I chose to cheer for the Welsh team, but I'm happy I did! I'm really impressed with their performance (although there's always room for improvement, especially in the Welsh Women's team).

I've been into rugby since 2018, so I'm fairly new to it, but I'm so happy I got into the sport! I had planned on visiting the Principality stadium in Cardiff last summer (cause I was going to visit Wales for a week) but I ended up not being able to go, because of the current situation. Hopeful that I'll go soon enough though 🥰

The video shows my hand shaking after a very close call against Scotland earlier this year (my friend from Scotland got me the beanie as a joke but jokes on her I’ll wear it to watch every match between Wales and Scotland (with one of my jerseys 🤣🙈👏🏼)