Rugby

[horselady]

I know I've said it before but I'm gonna say it again. Please, please someone get that warbling singer off the pitch and away from our national anthem. I saw some letters in the paper the other day complaining about her so it's not just me

[thesshhh]

I so agree with you horselady. What paper were those letters in?

[horselady]

I can't remember, I was having a coffee and skimming through papers they had in the shop, I think it might have been the Mirror. It was a good game.

[maggiebee]

Oh Flower of Scotland, when will we see your likes again! Stirs the blood.

[thesshhh]

Oh yes, I love hearing the crowd sing that, and particularly enjoyed the times Amy Macdonald sung it at Scotland matches. Ireland’s Call is stirring too. Both knock spots off Gd Save The Queen, especially when it’s sung by Laura Wright

[horselady]

I love the Welsh anthem too, always turn tv up to hear that one, as you say, they all knock spots off ours, (speaking as an Englishwoman)why do we have to be lumbered with her, wonder whose bright idea that was.

[jno]

keep the singer, replace the team

[zebo]

Why do we have The Queen for England anyway for a home nations' match? There are many other songs that could be sung, even Swing Low is much older than Flower of Scotland, circa 1974, or Jerusalem maybe?

[jno]

the problem with Swing Low is that people know only one line. Even God Save the Queen has better recognition value than that.

It's also about waiting for death (or according to some interpretations, about waiting to move to a better part of the country).

[Quizmonster]

I'm amazed to find that some Scots find 'Flower of Scotland' stirring; to me, it sounds as miserable a dirge as 'God Save The Queen' is.
I thoroughly approve of Billy Connolly's suggestion that we replace the tune for the latter with the theme from The Archers and please let us find alternatives for both tune and words as Scotland's own anthem!

[Sqad]

Quizmonster......I agree....it is a mournful, miserable, tuneless, uninspiring piece of "music".....much worse than God Save the Queen.

Irish and Welsh are fine, but if one needs to be "stirred, then the national anthems of Russia and Germany are streets ahead.....although they don't play rugby...;-)

[jno]

something about crushing the rebellious English, Quizmonster? But adapted for highland dancing on the terraces.

[Sqad]

jno....

"But adapted for highland dancing on the terraces."

How could you adapt Flower of Scotland for highland dances......for funerals maybe?

[Quizmonster]

I'm afraid, J, that I agree with Sqad as regards Flower of Scotland and highland dancing. I can see no way in which the two could be combined successfully in any kind of joyful way. That would be like trying to link a Brahms' lullaby and the haka!

[jno]

I was thinking of your proposed new anthem, Quizmonster.

As dirges go, you can’t beat the anthem whose first line is “Ukraine isn’t dead yet”.

[ichkeria]

The Welsh anthem is the greatest and I say that as an Irishman:-)
Although Uruguay runs it close. It’s possibly the most fun.

When Ireland play the All Blacks in Dublin we have the presidential salute, the visiting anthem, the home anthem, Ireland’s call and the haka. Which means they have to get there a day early to fit it all in:-)

jno, the first line of Ukraine’s anthem actually translates as “Ukraine’s glory and freedom has not perished” which is slightly more cheerful than the often mistranslated first line.