Ireland celebrate while the title race is back on!

What a tournament this has been, we have seen so many ups and downs (England versus Italy anyone?), the re-emergence of England as a side that actually looks a bit better than a bunch of blind donkeys running around a field, and the decline of the Welsh........mwahahahahahahahahahha!

Actually that's a bit harsh, because at times the men in red have lit up this tournament, and I still feel they are the side with the most potential in the world at the moment, they just need to get some consistency. What a great final game though, after a day of intense rugby that showed the best of the French (seemingly playing against the only Italian that bothered to show up - Sergio Parrisse - what a man!), saw England put in a strong first half performance against the Scottish in a bruising encounter at Twickenham, and finally had the two best teams going hammer and tongs at each other in front of a packed Millennium stadium. The fact it went to the last kick was fitting to such an amazing championship, and it will be interesting now to see who has done enough to get themselves on the upcoming Lions tour to South Africa.

I have been very impressed with the way England have turned themselves around in this tournament, if you think how bad we were against the Italians, and then compare that to the first halves against the Scots and French, it seems as if we have come a long way. What I think Johnson has shown is that if we do the basics well, and can build a good attacking platform, then we have enough spark in our backline to tear teams apart, the only real problems came when we were doing well, and the players forgot the game plan and just tried scoring from everywhere, then we found it harder to break down teams as we hadn't done the ground work first. The good news is that England have clearly got the right management team in place as Johnson has responded brilliantly to his critics, and I think we are starting to put in place the foundations for an awesome 2011 World Cup side, although it is a long way off, but with Flutey, Armitage and a number of other players looking world class, we are in a lot better position now than we were before the tournament.

I would also like to point out that if that Jones kick had gone over to deny Ireland victory, I would pretty much have got all my predictions spot on, as I had France to win by more than 20, England by 15 and Wales to beat Ireland but only just with Ireland winning the Grand Slam............that's not bad!!!

Now onto the footy, and who would of thought it?? Man Utd and Chelsea both lose, and in fact United really struggled against a Fulham side that have been getting better each week although being down to 9 men didn't help! Suddenly a title race that looked like it was over months ago has been blown wide open, but with Chelsea losing their first game under Guus Hiddink at Spurs it was left to Liverpool, against a wounded Villa side on Sunday, to try to reign in the Champions at the top.......and wow how they did it.

It's not that Villa were that bad, in fact you could argue they could have been 2-1 up at one point if Carew had been a bit less wasteful and Van Der Sar not as alert, but it was not to be, as Liverpool romped home 5-0, a defeat that has asked some serious questions marks about MON's team. Liverpool look irresistible at the moment, and for them to score five at home with Torres not getting one would have been unthinkable a few months ago, and the scary part was that until Gerrard slotted home the first penalty, he had been largely innocuous.

So who will win the title??? My money is still on United, just because they have been here so many times before, but I would love it......just love it right (in my best Keegan rant impersonation), if Liverpool could beat 'em!!

Either way, the title race is wide open again, but for Villa, with Arsenal playing some great football again, you must say it looks like the Uefa/Europa league for them next year, which is kind of funny when you consider that MON got knocked out of the Uefa cup this year playing a weakened team so that they could focus on getting into Europe next year..............D'oh!!

Anyway, Villa need to change something, as there players looked flat, and generally not that bothered on Sunday, and some of the passion definitely was missing, worryingly something that MON normally excels in getting from his players. I wouldn't panic yet though, as they are just having a slump, as all teams do at some point in the season, and as long as they have MON at the helm you can't see them going too far wrong...........although I feel they need some more battlers in their team who play with a bit more pride than say was on display by Barry and Milner. At least it is shaping up to be one of closest seasons in memory, not just at the top, at the bottom too, where any one of about 12 clubs could go down, although my money is on the Baggies, 'Boro, and Newcastle.....and not just because they are in the bottom three now.....they just seem to be lacking a certain edge.

This week I have a week off weight training for the first time in about 8 months, after having hit my maximums last week, and I must admit, after telling my coach that I wouldn't need anytime off, that I am a real man and I would battle through, I found myself loving the lie in and generally not doing anything that this morning brought, especially after I had a scare with my knee on Saturday while out riding my new Yamaha FZ-1 for the Motorcycle Diaries (http://blogs.birminghammail.net/motorcycle), when I thought I had popped my ACL, but luckily enough (not that I am a hypochondriac.......honest!) a night of Ice and rest seems to have sorted it out.

So while I am not doing any heavy weights this week (although I will go down and do some trunk work......I am HARDCORE don't you know!) I will be training with the Birmingham Bee's, who managed another good win on Saturday beating (and condemning to relegation from National 2) Southend 49-27, leaving them in second place, 4 points off the top with two games in hand on leaders Redruth. They were made to work hard for their win, which came in the final 20 minutes, with the Bee's running in six tries (3 from Simon Hunt), and getting 19 points from the boot of Fly half Mark "Woody" Woodrow. This means that with only 6 games left this year, the Bee's have promotion to National One in their own hands, and they will truly feel that they can achieve such a target with the style of rugby they are playing at the moment, and obviously with me helping them out down training............yeah right!

Talking about my FZ-1, wow I thought the Gladius last week was nice, and I don't want to spoil my diary for Friday, but I think I might have found my new favourite type of bike.......so powerful but at the same time, not as taxing to ride as my beautiful R6. Talking of which, you will be able to finally bid on the Streetbike R6 (signed by all the bands that have visited Kerrang in the last year) in the next few days when we auction it off on eBay with all profits from the sale going to the Teenage Cancer Trust, I will keep you posted on when the auction goes live.

Finally I am also on drive this week, covering for Kate & OJ who are doing breakfast, so catch me each from 4-7pm Mon-Friday this week, and of course don't forget I am DJ'ing at Gatecrasher on Wednesday night too!

I will be doing a nice editorial piece on Wednesday about the start of the F1 season, including my preview of the new rule changes and laws, and who I think will win this years title, so until them my amigo's!