Former players Ugo Monye, Ben Kay and Rory Lawson – who are pundits for TNT Sports – spoke to The Morning Advertiser this week to state the case for why pubs need to be screening the Autumn Internationals.
Recently, CGA by NIQ client director Chris Sterling told the MA Leaders Club that watching sport at home is fizzling out while visiting the pub to see screenings is on the rise.
Former England and Harlequins back Ugo Monye explained: “The Autumn Internationals are a competition that lasts four weeks and you’ve got the very best players in the world and the very best countries going head to head.
Ugo Monye
Teams: England, British & Irish Lions, Harlequins
Q. What are your favourite pubs?
My favourite pub is the Cabbage Patch – I love Stu (Stuart Green) the landlord. It’s become iconic. If you want that kind of vibe where you want the next best thing to being sat in the stadium then it must be the Cabbage Patch (in Twickenham).
If you want something where you can breathe a little bit more and chill, I’m going to say the Hound in Chiswick, (west London). Top tier food. Loads of big screens everywhere.
I went to the Devonshire (in Soho), the food is great and the Guinness is some of the best and I learned a bit as to what makes a really good Guinness. I’ve known the landlord Oisin Rogers for about 20 years because he used to run the Boathouse in Putney, the Ship in Wandsworth and St Margaret’s Tavern (in Twickenham) before then. He used to look after me and all the Quins boys for team socials. It was brilliant. In fact, St Margaret’s Tavern was where us and the London Irish players used to go to after every single game, we hung out, had beers together, played cards and it was great.
Q. What’s are your favourite drinks in a pub/bar?
I’ll start with the Guinness and I know I shouldn’t say this but I’ve been known to have blackcurrant in my Guinness – I have a sweet tooth. People say it ruins a Guinness, like a really good coffee doesn’t have sugar or syrup. I tend to disagree.
Then I like an Old Fashioned cocktail or a Negroni. What’s become a recent favourite is a Tequila ginger beer. I also like a spiced rum and ginger ale.
“Why wouldn’t you want to watch the best players, the best countries and some of the biggest rivalries on the planet – four weeks back to back. It’s like a mini dose of the Rugby World Cup.
“Pubs should advertise the s**t out of it! It’s OK to put up a sign saying the rugby is on for a month as a headline but if you genuinely attract people then theme it. If it’s South Africa against France, Ireland against Australia, England against New Zealand, theme it but make sure [your customers] care. Let them know why this is special, why this is important.
“I’m a sports fan. I love all sports and live sport is the best. Being in the stadium is great but the second best is watching it with people, whether it’s your friends or [people you don’t know] but have the same interest of being in the pub because whether it’s on the TV as background, whether it’s being there because of the energy in that pub, or whether you’ve deliberately taken half a day on to be able to watch back-to-back rugby, it’s just a great place to be.”
He went on to examine a few of the upcoming matches. He stated Ireland versus New Zealand in Chicago this weekend (8.10pm UK time) has “become a really emotive fixture and that rivalry is absolutely sensational”.
“Then you’ve got Ireland against South Africa, who, in a rugby rivalry sense, don’t really like each other,” Monye argued. “That’s the number one team against the number two team in the world going head to head.
“You’ve got France against South Africa, which is a repeat of the Rugby World Cup quarter final. There’s so many amazing fixtures right that if I wasn’t working on it, I’d be in the pub enjoying the atmosphere and just wanting to take it all in. It’s brilliant.”
Having a good time
Former Leicester lock Ben Kay gave his viewpoint on why a pub should screen the Autumn Internationals.
Ben Kay
Teams: England, British & Irish Lions, Leicester
Q. What are your favourite pubs?
My favourite pub is the Ty Coch (in the village of Porthdinllaen near Morfa Nefyn, Gwynedd), which is in my little escape in north Wales and is on the beach. It’s just our favourite place. It’s a pretty amazing setting.
I also love Bridge 61, which is in Foxton Locks (five miles south-east of Leicester) and is a proper spit and sawdust, old boatman’s pub.
Q. What are your favourite drinks in a pub/bar?
I’m quite eclectic but it would tend to be beer or cider, but I’d probably say Guinness. I love a wine but I don’t tend to drink it in the pub.
There’s also the Langton Brewery, which is near me as well and their amber ale Inclined Plane (4.2% ABV), which is named after how they got the boats back up the hill after they’d come down, is fantastic and is served at Bridge 61.
He said: “From a game perspective, we want to get our game to as big an audience as possible but also make sure that when people are watching rugby, they’re having a good time. There are some things about watching sport in a pub like maybe you can’t hear or get distracted but the great thing is you have that atmosphere. It’s next best thing to being in the stadium.
“You’ve also got people you can discuss things with. If you’re an expert, you can chat tactics with someone else who thinks they’re an expert. If you’re new to the game, they can find out what’s going on but the whole thing about sport is creating experiences and we all know shared experiences are the best.
“Probably, for a while, rugby has been asking ‘is our game too complicated?’ and ‘would we grow the game quicker if it was more simple?’ If you look at the fastest growing sports in the world such as Formula One and the NFL, these are some of the most complicated sports and people like learning new stuff about the sport as you go along. As a San Francisco 49ers fans when I was young I used to love not knowing all the rules and learning something new every week – that was a big attraction to me.”
On how a pub can draw crowds in, Kay said every pub is a very different place with different clientele but a site needs to celebrate the rugby and make it a special event.
This could mean having the bar staff invested in the atmosphere and cheering when your team scores. This will at least draw attention that the rugby is on and it’s key to remember sometimes it’s other people in a pub that create an atmosphere that allows everyone else to feed off and it becomes a great night.
Kay concluded: “I’m not speaking as an expert but particularly with football it’s as though the international games are not as important as the Premier League. Rugby is slightly flipped on its head in that regard and you don’t have to be a huge rugby fan to enjoy watching your country do well against the Australians.”
Rugby in pubs all day
Ex-Scotland and Gloucester scrum half Rory Lawson gave his opinion on the Quilter Nations Series, he said: “This November, you’ve got the world’s best players in the northern hemisphere on the right timelines for the pubs being open and we are showcasing some of the biggest matches in the game.
“On the opening weekend, England are hosting Australia and this is coming straight off the back of British and Irish Lions tour to Australia (which the Lions won) so the Wallabies will be keen to come and knock off some of the northern hemisphere teams.
“You’ve got Ireland against New Zealand out in the US and that will be on Saturday night, so there will be rugby on in pubs throughout the entire day. It will draw people in and it’s a full day’s worth of action on both Saturdays and Sundays.
“The times whereby you want people in the pubs having a drink or two are the times that the rugby is on so, for me, it’s really a bit of a no-brainer.”
Rory Lawson
Teams: Scotland, Gloucester, Newcastle, Edinburgh
Q. What are your favourite pubs?
I’m relatively blessed because I live in south London. I’ve got the Devonshire in Balham, which is great, but not to be confused with the Devonshire in Piccadilly Circus, which is particularly great for a pint of Guinness with the combination of people from Mayfair and tourists.
You’ve also got the Alma in Wandsworth, you’ve got the County Arms nearby too, which is a favourite spot too. Then, up in Edinburgh, take your pick! There’s all sorts of great, great pubs.
Teague’s Bar in Gloucester is over the road from Kingsholm (Gloucester Rugby’s ground), which is owned by Mike Teague who is a Gloucester legend – that’s a good spot for a pre-game beer for fans and a post-game beer if you’re playing.
I lived in Cheltenham and there’s some good pubs there too such as . And yes, you know, whether you know No.131 The Promenade is a nice hotel with a really good bar in it.
Q. What are your favourite drinks in a pub/bar?
I’ve got two young kids so we are fans of the traditional Sunday roast so we like to go to a pub for that and I may have a beer or a glass of red wine.
Typically, I would go for a Guinness or an IPA like Neck Oil perhaps. I’m not particularly fussy, I’m pretty easy to please in the pub whether it’s lager, IPA, Guinness – and then, occasionally, I’d go on to the shorter stuff. I like Tequila, soda water and fresh lime – it’s doesn’t give you too bad a hangover but never cane it too much!
Quilter Nations Series: Autumn Internationals 2025 fixtures (GMT kick off times)
Saturday 1 November
England v Australia, Twickenham, 3.10pm
Japan v South Africa, Wembley, 4.10pm
Scotland v United States, Murrayfield, 5.40pm
Ireland v New Zealand, Chicago, 8.10pm
Saturday 8 November
Ireland v Japan, Dublin, 12.40pm
Scotland v New Zealand, Murrayfield, 3.10pm
England v Fiji, Twickenham, 5.40pm
Italy v Australia, Udine, 5.40pm
France v South Africa, Paris, 8.10pm
Sunday 9 November
Wales v Argentina, Cardiff, 3.10pm
Saturday 15 November
Italy v South Africa, Turin, 12.40pm
England v New Zealand, Twickenham, 3.10pm
Wales v Japan, Cardiff, 5.40pm
France v Fiji, Bordeaux, 8.10pm
Ireland v Australia, Dublin, 8.10pm
Sunday 16 November
Scotland v Argentina, Murrayfield, 3.10pm
Saturday 22 November
Wales v New Zealand, Cardiff, 3.10pm
Ireland v South Africa, Dublin, 5.40pm
France v Australia, Paris, 8.10pm
Italy v Samoa, Genoa, 8.10pm
Sunday 23 November
Scotland v Tonga, Murrayfield, 1.40pm
England v Argentina, Twickenham, 4.10pm