The Guinness Premiership 2005/2006 begins

As it's only a few minutes before the first game kicks off in the 2005/2006 season; now might be a good time for my prediction of the table as it might be at the end of the season.

1 Leicester
2 Wasps
3 Sale
4 Bath
5 Saracens
6 Worcester
7 Leeds
8 Gloucester
9 Northampton
10 Newcastle
11 London Irish
12 Bristol

I'd like to see Bristol stay up but i don't think it's going to happen.
Some (or many) might say that I'm being overly optimistic by placing Worcester in sixth. I don't think so. They survived last season even after the very slow (but understandable) start. At the beginning of last season they lost eight of their first nine games. But they managed to come back from such a big disadvantage and avoid relegation. They aren't starting from square one again. The team that plays its first game on Sunday is the team that finished last season strongly and not the one which took its first anxious steps in the Premiership a year ago this weekend. I remember at one point late last season the interesting fact that from mid-season until eight games later, in terms of table position Worcester were second in the premiership with only Leicester above them. Sixth place is very possible.

I was surprised that so many pre-season predictions put Worcester so low in the table. The highest position I've seen is 9th and the lowest was.... 12th. At least we can enjoy them proving everybody wrong again.

TONIGHT
Sale v Newcastle
I confidently predict a Sale win. Maybe something like....
Sale 24 Newcastle 15

It's all coming back to me now

Those Big Brother posts are bringing back bad memories. Twelve weeks of television and who should win the whole thing. Come to think of it, who did win? I've forgotten already.

Oh yes. Anthony. He who sat around for twelve weeks and in the end took away a sack load of money for doing nothing noteworthy in all that time. At least Eugene got the other half of it. The fact that Anfony was around for the whole series and yet featured very little in the series highlights says it all. Even Mary was in almost as many clips as Anthony and she was there for only one week.

This place looks familiar

I think [cough] this blog [splutter] needs to be dusted off before I do anything else.