Cooch's Six Nations Guide - England

England's green and pleasant land

Every couple of weeks for three months leading up to the 2010 Six Nations we are chatting to former England and British Lions prop, and part time Gullivers Mouthpiece, Gareth 'Cooch' Chilcott and bringing you his guide to the Six Nations. Gareth knows a thing or two about touring and gives us his recommendations on where to go and what to see when you are in town for the rugby. Next up Twickers...

Ah, Twickenham, the home of rugby (apart from the town of Rugby obviously), and the place to come to watch England…lose, if recent form is anything to go by! Getting to Twickenham can be a bit of a pilgrimage, not to say that’s not fun.

Most of the fun can be had at Richmond and lots of fans make a pub-crawl of it towards the stadium itself. Richmond is a fantastic place in the summer where you can sit on the edge of the Thames and enjoy a Pimms – it is still possible to do this during the Six Nations, but be sure to wrap up warm as it's not quite so nice in February.

There is a little cafe near the stadium called Carol’s where you can get a fantastic bacon and egg baguette and a coffee for under £5 – a rare thing in London!

Twickenham is the largest dedicated rugby union venue in the world and holds 82,000 spectators, not bad for a ground that was originally a cabbage patch before the RFU bought the land for just over £5,500 in 1907 (for you fact lovers the first game was in 1909 between Harlequins and Richmond). After watching recent games it might make more money turning it back into a cabbage patch.

Cooch, who played at Twickenham on a ‘couple’ of occasions has mixed feelings about Twickenham for the fans: “It’s a great stadium, run very efficiently and has everything you need. The only problem is the drink up afterwards. You have to jump back to Richmond or into town, it’s a bit of a trip but the journey is always entertaining.”

Tickets have not be released yet but check with Ticketmaster or the RFU’s website for when they might be:
England v Wales
England v Ireland

Image © Copyright Leo Wilkinson