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Blimey!  4 months with a tooth stuck in your head.  All the more blimey for the fact that this is not a unique occurrence; there’s a whole load of them.

Gloucester‘s performance in the Heineken Cup has not been good over the last few years.  In fact, the years that we’ve got in, we’ve always done badly.  After (just) topping the Premier League this year (let’s forget the final, shall we?) we’ve finally got pretty much the best we could have hoped for out of the draw for next year’s competition.

I know, I know. We lost. And it wasn’t even close.

Glaws looked pretty much the best we have all season. Twickenham here we come. Leicester in the final, which should make for an interesting match.

Some quotes from the BBC commentary:

The Gloucester loose-forwards swarm all over a discordant Saracens pack

The game is opening right up as Gloucester indulge in a bit of showboating and Saracens try desperately to salvage some pride.

Gloucester are rampant…

Marvellous. A right royal thrashing.

This is the second time since the creation of Premiership Rugby ™ that Gloucester have finished the regular season at the top of the table. Last time (the first year of the competition) we got spanked by Wasps in the final. This time there’s a real chance we could actually claim the title as well as the moral victory.

It’s been a phenomenal season that really lived up to the promise that we showed last year – how much that’s been helped by an early exit from Europe and a very heavy Six Nations schedule I can’t comment. Regardless here’s hoping that we cement the success in the final two matches.

Glaws take their rightful position at the top of the table. And it was a fairy tale game for Jake Boer in his last appearance at Kingsholm (and wearing the armband too).

…from your side’s players playing for England. If there was a chance that England’s 6 nations campaign was anything other than doomed I wouldn’t begrudge them our star players, but knackering Olly Morgan for the rest of the season in the midst of this disastrous English campaign makes me feel pretty pissed off, to be honest. They’ll have Tindall and Richards on the injured list by the end of this tournament knowing Glaws’s luck. Arsecheeks.

Lucky I didn’t put too much of my money where my mouth is! Last gasp try from France stuns Ireland. I was convinced that Ireland would do it this year, but after such a stunning match it’s hard to complain about either side being victorious. At least not all Northern European rugby is moribund.

…and a lot earlier than I thought. The Welsh foil my predictions by losing to the Scots. Meanwhile England win the only game they were guaranteed to, but badly.

Italy v France
England v Scotland
Wales v Ireland

England v Italy
Scotland v Wales
Ireland v France

Scotland v Italy
Ireland v England
France v Wales

Scotland v Ireland
Italy v Wales
England v France

Italy v Ireland
France v Scotland
Wales v England

Ireland win the Grand Slam, with France 2nd, Wales 3rd, and England 4th.