Today, the Six Nations joined Substack.
To some people, that might simply be another sporting organisation turning up on a new platform, but for me it brings back rather a lot of memories.
I can remember when it was still the Five Nations!
Winter afternoons watching rugby with my dad. England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France. With Welsh blood running through our family, Dad and I had a particular affection for both England and Wales, which made certain fixtures rather more complicated than others.
Rugby was just always there, part of growing up and part of family life.
Then, as I got older, came Twickenham (or Twickers, as rugby folk like to call it). From my early teens, Dad took my sister and me to watch England play. He was MD of a company that sponsored a local rugby team, so we had good seats, and the ritual rarely changed: a Mexican for lunch first, then swept up in the crowds and dragged down the road to the stadium. By the time I was at university, there was usually an invitation to have “a drink with your old dad” as well, which more often than not ended with me three sheets to the wind on my way back to the East End.
It was at Twickenham, watching England play, that I decided I wanted to work in sport.
I was standing high up in the stands when England scored a try and the whole place went wild. Dad put his arms round my shoulders, I put mine round his waist, and we jumped up and down together in utter joy. And a little voice in my head said, “I want to do this!”
I didn’t know what that meant, exactly. I didn’t want to be a rugby player and I certainly didn’t have a career plan. I just knew I wanted the keys to that moment, and to be part of whatever it was that made tens of thousands of people feel the way they did inside that stadium. Even the opposition fans around us gave us a sly smirk and a clap. (I think we won that match. I honestly can’t be sure, because the score was never the memorable part.)
Somehow, that little ambition turned into twenty years working behind the scenes in sport, much of it in professional rugby.
Fast forward to 2020, and the Six Nations came back into my life in a rather different capacity.
A PR agency had won the Guinness account, which included work around the men’s Six Nations, and needed someone who knew the rugby world: someone who understood the landscape, knew the people and could introduce them to the right individuals. They asked me, and so began one of my favourite contracts.
Afternoons and evenings of networking on what can only be described as a fairly royal scale. Conversations, introductions, connecting people, opening doors and making things happen. I was essentially a professional networker. I wish that was actually a job, because I would love that!
The highlight was a big black tie dinner for the rugby journalists, commentators and media managers. I hadn’t seen many of them for years and I was more nervous than I’d like to admit, yet everyone remembered me, looked after me and let me bother them at their tables to introduce my client. We even ended up on a table right by the awards podium. A few weeks later, the client asked me to track down some fans who had been particularly supportive of Scotland during the World Cup, and a couple of phone calls through my contacts later, I had a new friend at Scottish Rugby.
I loved it. Partly because I have always enjoyed bringing people together, and partly because it was a wonderful reminder of how much of sport happens away from the pitch: the relationships you build, the trust you earn and the people who remember you years later.
Then covid hit. We went into lockdown, the championship was disrupted and my services were suddenly no longer needed. I was gutted. The agency were a great bunch and I’d loved every minute of working with them.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, I occasionally thought about that little girl watching the Five Nations with her dad.
I wonder what she’d have made of it!
So yes, I’m rather pleased to see the Six Nations join us here on Substack today. Sport is full of stories that deserve to be told: the ones we see on the pitch, certainly, but also the thousands that unfold around it. The people, the relationships, the traditions and the extraordinary memories that stay with us long after we’ve forgotten the score. (I clearly have, in at least one case.)
The Six Nations has been part of my life as a supporter, a daughter and someone lucky enough to work in rugby. And now, rather wonderfully, we’re sharing a little corner of the internet too.
Welcome to Substack, Six Nations. I’m delighted you’re here. 🏉
And to everyone else, I’d love to know: what’s your earliest Five or Six Nations memory?
Beautiful
Kate what great writing, your passion and love of the game shine out and your embrace of the bigger rugby picture says so much about who you are and what you do. Thank you. 🙏