Finally Ladies and Gents your humble editor has torn herself away from the journalists that are becoming the bane of her existence (I jest of course!) just long enough to spend a few moments addressing our illustrious audience.
Oh my dear there's just so much to tell you! But I'll start here...
Welcome to Rugby Unplugged - the world's only global rugby lifestyle publication. Within these pages, we aim to entertain and titillate you with the news and views of players, teams, management, their wives, girlfriends (who we affectionately refer to as 'RuckChicks') and families.
Alongside all the latest rugby news, tournament reports and in-depth interviews from the great and good (and the slightly mischievous) of planet rugby, for your amusement and felicity we bring you up-to-date coverage of the worlds of motoring, fashion and beauty, travel and culture.
You'll no longer have to trawl the world wide web to find out which team is playing in which tournament this weekend, who's where in the league tables, what the weekend's scores were and who was the shining star...Rugby Unplugged brings it all to a screen near - whether it be your desktop, iPhone, MacBook Pro, Nokia smartphone or BlackBerry - we're on every platform so you don't have to wait to get to the office.
Rugby Unplugged is divided into five sectors: Kick Off, Half Time, Final Whistle, Cool Down and Turnstiles. Here's a map so you can see the content at a glance which I hope will let you navigate around the site and get used to what will become your favourite sections to bookmark.
Hopefully most of the sections are self-explanatory, and if you just pop over to each one, if it's anything less than obvious, there's a little precis on what you can expect to find. But there's a couple of bits I'd like to tell you about which we're very proud of...
The
gives you access to fixtures across the globe in every major tournament - from the Guinness Premiership, Magners League, Top 14, Super 10, Heineken and Amlin, Autumn Internationals and Six Nations up north, to the Currie Cup, Air New Zealand Cup, Super 14 and Tri Nations down south...along with the IRB Rugby Sevens World Series, you won't miss a game. We've also now added in LV= Cup, British & Irish Cup and RFU Championship. The schedules are already online for you, and from Summer 2010, the fully functioning URC will be available to our subscribers, not just listing the fixtures, but KO times in your timezone and even which TV channel the game is on wherever you are in the world.
Also in Turnstiles (in development right now) will be our Ultimate Travel Guide - your key to every major rugby stadium globally with invaluable information on the nearest stations, motorways, airports and other transport links, where to stay, eat, drink, party, shop and even where the closest cashpoints are.
And the Forces Unplugged - one sector of the rugby world that does seem to pass by almost entirely unnoticed unless it's the first Saturday in May and you happen to be at Twickers. Well we're putting a stop to that, and are making sure that you can read about the rugby elite, vets and possibly even the ladies teams in the Army, Navy, Air Forces and hopefully even the Police and Fire Services.
There's a few bits and pieces that are a work in progress, like gossip queen RubyG who appears to be suffering a rather terrible extended hangover as she won't stop partying long enough to write some copy but I'm assured that she'll make an appearance before the season is over...I do believe she may be leading Lady Chattering-Wells astray!
Which brings me neatly onto the rest of Rugby Unplugged family. If you have a look at the bottom of your screen, on the left you can click on The Team icon and get the low down on exactly who's who and how it came about that they got involved in this mad-cap venture.
I do believe I really have taken up far too much of your time for now, so I will sign off and leave you to have a good look around.
Do feel free to email me with any opinions, suggestions and general observations, and I look forward to your visit again.
Yours delightfully,
editor@rugbyunplugged.com
