The carpet was actually black rather than red for the Netflix Irish Premiere of Six nations : Full Contact at the Guinness Storehouse last night but there was a giddiness about the place ahead of the series dropping in full for the rest of the watching public tomorrow, Wednesday, January 24th.
As a spoiler alert, I can’t actually give you any spoiler alerts as we are not allowed to review the first episode we got to see last night until tomorrow but anyone with a love of sport and the Guinness Six nations in particular will be happy out depending on how many episodes of the eight you decide to binge ahead of this year’s tournament.
In the style of Drive to Survive it’s all about the characters but with plenty of live action to keep the narrative moving along.
Last night there was character on stage as well with Jonathan Sexton and Keith Earls joining Six Nations Chief Marketing Officer Sarah Beattie for a chat afterwards with Christina Mahon.
Sexton admitted to feeling “Bloody depressed” about not being involved this year with the team heading out to Portugal this morning but he was also looking forward to watching it. Earls equally confessed to missing it but was also glad not to “wake up the morning after a game feeling like I’ve been in multiple car crashes.”
The great and the good of the sport in Ireland were out in force last night drinking Guinness 0.0 and maybe the odd pint of the other stuff, nibbling on popcorn and getting their pictures taken, all very Hollywood.
Catherine Toolan, Managing Director of the Guinness Storehouse welcomed us all before a few words from Ronan Dunne, Chair of Six Nations Rugby, clearly excited about the prospect of bringing the sport he clearly loves to a wider audience.
After a day of commercial partner content and the launch at the same venue of the Guinness Six Nations itself, it was time to let the hair down and the buzz of conversation was at a different pitch to what you’d get when the game or an awards ceremony was the centre of attention as it normally is in sport.
Variety being the spice of life there was nothing wrong in that and the different lens through which last year’s tournament was viewed by the Netflix cameras will be interesting to see in full.
“The purpose of bringing this to life was to reach out to new audiences and to bring the sport to life for those who have never experienced it in the way that most of us in the room have,” said Beattie.
Connecting to the players and seeing that they are human was a vital part of the Netflix sports documentary model and if it has half the impact as it had in F1 it will have been a worthwhile experience.
It needs more than a one off series to copper fasten the public’s attention and the belief is that the camera’s will be back again this campaign.
The different camps level of engagement with the film-makers will doubtless impact on the engagement of the viewers.
Sexton admitted last night he wasn’t quite as open as the star of last night’s opening episode, and that he was “very aware” of the camera’s whenever he walked into a room but that “they were alright actually,” which is perhaps as good a compliment as they might have hoped for.
The Italian camp were the most open with ireland on the other end of the scale according to industry gossip but the fact of Ireland winning the Grand Slam in Dublin on St Patrick’s Weekend will make for a pretty entertaining finale, with the hint last night that the fans play a big part in that.
So do you remember smiling for a camera in or around the Aviva Stadium that weekend. Best get an agent.
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