This weekend sees the giants of Wales take on the minnows of England. Not knowing the result I wouldn’t like to make any predictions about this one. However Wales go into the match as tournament favourites having won the Grand Slam in 2008.

The battle will take place at Wales’ Millennium Stadium which will be filled to the rafters with daffodil wearing, dragon holding, angelic singing Welsh people.

Wales Coach Warren Gatling has been a huge success since joining the side.

Previous Six Nation winners are:
2000 England
2001 England
2002 France (Grand Slam)
2003 England (Grand Slam)
2004 France (Grand Slam)
2005 Wales (Grand Slam)
2006 France
2007 France
2008 Wales (Grand Slam)

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Chelsea have sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari

• Guus Hiddink and Avram Grant are immediately linked to the Stamford Bridge post
• ‘Results and performances appeared to be deteriorating’
• Club act to ‘maintain a challenge for trophies’
• Ray Wilkins takes charge of team on temporary basis

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In the wake of the BAFTAs, the attention of the global film industry turns towards the Oscars. Can Britain’s most unlikely success for years compete with the old pretenders?

The BAFTAs are over. The stars are already hanging their glittered gowns into their walk-in wardrobes and turning their attention to the big event. The Oscars are a mere few weeks away.

Yesterday was Danny Boyle’s day. His film Slumdog Millionaire, an energetic and compelling snapshot of life in the Mumbai slums, scooped a clutch of awards, amongst them Best Film and Director. Slumdog’s success had been widely predicted, and last night it went some distance toward fulfilling the humorous prophesy of a British tabloid, that, in mid-January, excitably claimed that: ‘Slumdog has the Pedigree to Winalot’.

All things being equal, Slumdog should well be able to replicate its successes at the other side of the Atlantic. But predicting the actions of the Academy has never been an exact science. Alfred Hitchcock, widely considered to be one of the finest directors of all, never received much more than his complimentary quota of Champagne from the Academy; Kate Winslet hasn’t won so much as a toffee, and nor has Johnny Depp, Ed Harris, Albert Finney or Tom Cruise.

But does Slumdog have what it takes to crack the Academy? It’s doubtful. Hollywood tends to lean towards grim historical epics, vivid biopics, or leftfield art-house flicks. Slumdog defies any of these pigeonholes, and it would be a brave step to hand it one of the top awards in a year that boasts so many more traditional favourites.

Can Danny Boyle pull off the ultimate surprise in Hollywood in a fortnight’s time? All the answers will be revealed in time, when Sky report from Hollywood, live from the red carpet. All the coverage begins on Sky Movies from 2pm on Monday 23rd February. The ceremony will be presented by Hugh Jackman and coverage will include awards of each Golden Statuette. Slumdog or not, it promises to be quite an occasion.

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Will 2009 be the year that Andy Murray blossoms into our greatest tennis player for a generation?

It wasn’t a bad beginning to the season for Andy Murray. Successive wins against James Blake, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal meant that he has three top ten scalps in his pocket before the season had barely began. Along the way he scooped the Capitala World Tennis Championship trophy and the Qatar Open before he headed towards Australia for the first slam of the year as white hot favourite.

But a fourth round defeat to Fernando Verdasco meant that Murray was dumped out of the competition before the action had really begun. Admired turned critics over night. They questioned whether Murray is ready, or good enough to compete at the very highest level alongside Federer, Nadal and Novak Djorkovic.

Murray is already generating as much excitement in British tennis as Henman did a decade ago. Then, with a clutch of near-misses at Wimbledon, Henman made British tennis exciting again for a generation that scarcely knew what the third round of a tournament felt like.

Murray certainly has the potential to be even better, and whilst the tabloids will indulge in sensationalism: playing him up and dismissing his chances in equal measure, the more intelligent can comfort themselves with the prospect of a decade’s worth of match-winning from the young Scot.

It’s easy to remember that Andy Murray is still just 21 years old. Can he win one of the slams? The answer from all quarters is a confident ‘yes’. But with Nadal and Federer about, it isn’t going to be easy.

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We’ve now got HD channels by the bucket load. Sky Box Office HD, Sky Sports, Sky Premier, Sky One, BBC and Channel 4 are just a short collection of these, each of them available in glorious high definition.

The number of channels is testament to the big step forward the technology has taken. Launched in May 2006, the longest subscribers to the Sky HD service will now have been enjoying the service for around three years, and in the next three years the service is set to grow quickly.

The UK’s two biggest broadcasters, Sky and the BBC, are both committed HD enthusiasts, and by the time the London Olympics arrive in three summer’s time they aim to have a vast majority of the British public hooked onto their network.
One of the key draws is price. The Sky HD service is now available for well under £100. At the time of launch a subscription would have only been possible after the £299 initial fee was paid. And with the appropriate technology, BBC HD can be received for free.

So, whether Bond is your bag – or you’d prefer to put your feet up to the sound of the Premiership, it could be time to jump onto the HD wagon, because it’s already off downhill and it isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

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Twenty years after Sky first launched their broadcasting service, the landscape is quite different

The Berlin Wall was still standing 20 years ago when Sky television was launched, effectively doubling the number of channels that we have available in an instant. And Sky heralded a revolution of a very different kind, bringing a whole range of television channels to households around the country that ran in addition to the existing four.

Twenty years along the line, Sky is firmly established as one of the nation’s top broadcasters. Sky One has made inroads into the BBC’s monopoly of topical news programmes and Sky Movies and Sky Sports have become flagship stations in their own right.

In the last few weeks Sky have drastically reduced the price of their Sky+ HD boxes to an impressive, and dangerously accessible £49 – meaning that within weeks, viewers can be settling into their sofas to enjoy the final stages of the Premier League, Oscar night, or the very latest from Sky Box Office all in glorious, unprecedented quality.

To celebrate today’s anniversary, Pocket-lint has dedicated a list of five Sky facts. To discover more about Sky’s range of HD offers, visit

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Football, football, football.

The football season is now in full, elegant flow. Tottenham and Manchester United will contend the Carling Cup final in the next few weeks, and in the Premier League things are tougher than ever. Here is a short update on upcoming football fixtures that can be found on Sky Sports and Setanta Sports. So, set yourself horizontally upon the sofa, and enjoy:

FA CUP Fourth Round

Key January Events:

23rd - Derby vs Nottingham Forest
25th - Cardiff vs Arsenal
25th - Liverpool vs Everton

FA Cup Fourth Round Derby vs Nottingham Forest – January 23rd

A derby from Pride Park as Nigel Clough leads Derby, one of his father’s former clubs into battle with another, Nottingham Forest.

FA Cup Fourth Round Cardiff vs Arsenal – January 25th

On Sunday the 25th, we have Arsenal’s tough trip to Wales to face Cardiff City in a repeat of the 1927 final with Aaron Ramsey facing his old club.

FA Cup Fourth Round Liverpool vs Everton – January 25th

4th round derby from Anfield as Liverpool and Everton commence battle once again. Followed by the live draw for the 5th Round.

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Marie Kemplay returns for another look at the Sky Player

A few months ago I wrote that Sky was introducing an online viewing platform, Sky Player. Well it’s here and I’m impressed to say it’s definitely exceeded expectations.

When I first read about the service it wasn’t at all clear what Sky actually be showing on Sky Player, all they were able to confirm was that it would show content from Sky Sports, which to be frank left me feeling it was all a bit half baked. But I was wrong, if you go to the website -https://skyplayer.sky.com/vod/page/home.do - you can watch content from 25 channels, as well as Sky Sports you can watch Sky and BBC news, National Geographic and History Channels to expand your mind, Sky One and Box Office for entertainment and Nickelodeon and Disney Channel for the ‘kids’.

Not bad at all, especially when as well as offering you content on demand you can also stream live programmes this is unique for an internet viewing platform. If you’re not bothered about watching on a massive screen you can forego the whole installation of a digibox business and still watch live Sky programmes!

Sky Player has also impressed me with how affordable it is, again when I first wrote about Sky Player prices had not yet been decided, leaving the impression that they could charge almost anything for the service.

But despite my fears it’s perfectly reasonable, usually £1 per programme, £5 per month for a sports highlights package and for existing Sky customers it’s completely free!

Honestly, it’s not quite what you might describe as DVD quality viewing but neither is it Youtube, to say its being transmitted over the internet it’s excellent. The only real issue I can see with Sky Player is that you can only install it on one computer per subscription, not such an issue for non-sky customers but say you live in a household which already subscribes to Sky with multiple computers and several techo-sevvy people, there’s going to be fisticuffs at dawn over who gets to watch it free on their laptop.

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