Friday Night Lights - a history

The Six Nations is probably the biggest annual international sporting competition in the world.

I’ve already explained in great detail how it’s better than the Super Bowl, how Northern Hemisphere rugby is vastly superior to its southern counterpart and how the rich variety of supporters the competition brings forth adds to its charms.

It’s historic AF, as the kids say, tracing its history all the way back to 1883, though Eddie Butler’s montage voiceovers weren’t quite as good back then. Still, that doesn’t mean history can’t be made, and in 2009 a new project was embarked upon by the organisers of the tournament, with great encouragement from the French rugby union. For the first time in its history, a Six Nations game would be held on a Friday night , a daring record surely up there with Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon, or the first time I managed to fold a fitted bed sheet without swearing.

French rugby has a long and proud tradition domestically of Friday night contests serving as something of an entrée to the weekend, but internationally the decision to hold a game at the Stade de France outside of the usual Saturday/Sunday window was met with great anger. Supporters bemoaned the lack of consideration for travelling fans, and decried the fact that the influx of cash into the game had given broadcasters carte blanche to dictate the tournament to their whims. Players were equally put out, with Wales captain Ryan Jones and flanker Martyn Williams pointing out that a 9pm kick off presented challenges in terms of time management and tiredness.

Even French coach Marc Lievremont wasn’t happy, being of the opinion that anything other than 3pm Saturday afternoon kick offs were sacrilege as far as he was concerned. Ever the contrarian, Wales coach Warren Gatland thought the whole thing was “a fantastic idea”, claiming that a later kick off gave coaches much more time to prepare for a match.

To the match itself then, and, despite a late surge of pressure from Wales, the home side came away victorious 21-16, crushing Welsh dreams of back-to-back Grand Slams in the process. Wales beat Italy in the following round to regain some composure, but then lost to Ireland at home in Cardiff in a nail-biting encounter which saw Ireland clinch their first Grand Slam since 1948. France for their part had evidently been benefitting from that Friday feeling, as in the following round they were thumped by England on a much more traditional Sunday afternoon.

Despite the loss, Wales clearly enjoyed the experience as they decided to take a leaf out of Rebecca Black’s book and get down on Fridays as it were. For the next seven years, Cardiff played host to a Friday night game, with Wales winning three of those matches. The tradition was clearly established, but that’s not to say it was without its detractors. The evident popularity of Friday night fixtures meant that they had become an irremovable part of the tournament, like the national anthems or mocking Jeremy Guscott’s choice of scarf, but the burden was not being shared equally .

Despite the supposed French love of Friday night games, they have yet to repeat their experiment in Paris (though have featured at Cardiff three times). Scotland have cited concerns over attendances, Ireland have pointed out the difficulties of international travel and the area surrounding England’s Twickenham stadium can be an impenetrable fortress at the best of times without throwing beered-up commuters into the mix. England’s opening match of the 2015 World Cup was held on a Friday, but the endeavour has yet to be repeated.

With Fridays now permanently pencilled in on rugby fans’ calendars, a new record is about to be set in 2018. For the first time ever, this year’s tournament will see a Friday night game that doesn’t feature Wales, with France hosting Italy at the Orange Velodrome in Marseille. Reports that Warren Gatland is planning to attend the game anyway and then go on a drunken search for a kebab shop at 3am are sadly unconfirmed.

Saturday afternoons will always appease the traditionalists, with the bright lights, pumping music and lasers of many Friday night games turning the Principality into an overblown facsimile of PRYZM on one too many occasions. But with viewing figures necessitating a continuation of the current scheduling, it’s certainly looking like Friday night fixtures are here to stay.