Not much really happened in the game, that is the best way of putting it and saves me the rollercoaster of highs and lows I went through on Sunday. I missed a back post tap in and then later on scored a wonder goal by lobbing the keeping and then second half missed a back post tap in, and then later scored a ‘Pearson’ wonder goal by driving with the ball and hitting it at a tight angle.

Credit to the rest of the team, they all played really well, and it was a great first outing for the mixed to start the season off.

But enough about the game, onto more important stuff, I’ve been watching the new Lord of the Rings TV series, The Rings of Power. As well as the Game of Thrones spin off, The House of the Dragon. And here are my thoughts on them both.

The House of the Dragon.

First off, it should be House of Dragons, not House of the dragon. There is more than one house that has dragons! And we get it, we’re all still milking off the amazing acting done by Emilia Clarke which has led us down this path to where we are today. That’s the only reason why we’re here. We all know how badly they sank the ship on GOT at the end. I’ve still got a grudge against that. #thenorthneverforgets.

Anyway, this is looking reasonable promising so far after 5 episodes, it feels more like the early work of GOT and we can all agree that Matt Smith is smashing it out of the park. I can’t wait to find out what Daemon Targaryen crimes I will be defending each episode… yeah sure, murder your forgotten wife to claim her house that’s a sensible thing to do. You and your niece are perfect for each other, you should definitely try and sleep with her to ruin your brothers plan on the throne.

I think they went too game of thrones with Visery having to choose between a 12- or 15-year-old girl to marry. Like we get the political alliances angle that always needs to happen because anything else could cause out right war but please don’t show a 12-year-old promising to bed the king once she’s of age. Like that’s too much, just show me the crabs eating people again and let’s get back normal.

I am intrigued to see where they’re going now, as apparently, we’re having a 10-year jump in the next episode so disappointed we’ll be losing a good bunch of actors, but Matt Smith will remain to carry out his unholy actions. Overall, I’m giving it a solid 7.5/10 with potential to grow. It does need to shake things up though, too predicable in the last episode that someone was going to die at the wedding. There’s always a death at the weddings!

Also, Rhaenyra is the rightful heir to the throne I will fight you if you think differently.

The Rings of Power

Now I’m a big Lord of the Rings fan, I have the extended versions on Blu-Ray and will happily watch them on a quiet Sunday and inform Rhi this is what I’ll be doing for the next 12 hours. Christopher Tolkien created a masterpiece of a world and the films do it justice. We do not talk about the Hobbit films, only that why didn’t Legolas use his gravity defying parkour skills in the Lord of the Rings? I’m sure it would have helped out a lot more.

The TV series so far is a bit slow for my liking. I get that they’re trying to build a world and get you invested before anything spectacular happens but let’s pick up the pace a bit. It’s taken them 4 episodes to figure out the Mordor symbol is a map! Seriously how stupid do you think we are! You show the bloody map of Middle Earth every time you cut scenes and you can clearly see that the mountains around the Southlands make the symbol.

Also, can we just get rid of those Irish wanna be hobbits. What is the point of them? That main one drives me insane she is literally causing danger to the entire town because it’s a sign she has to help the bumbling giant. She does give me Frodo vibes, just a complete waste of space that is going to be carried by the rest of the cast.

Overall, they better pick up the pace. They’ve got too many stories happening at one time and no sign of them intertwining anytime soon. I am hoping this is a masterclass and doesn’t turn into any CGI mess like the Hobbit. 6/10 with massive potential to grow. Biggest budget in TV history… it’s got a lot to live up to.