Prince William and Kate will apparently be out and about this weekend to watch rugby. They will head to Wales for the Six Nations match between Wales and England. They’re both patrons of those rugby teams now – Kate is patron of England’s Rugby Football Union (which she took over from Prince Harry), and William is patron of the Wales Rugby Union They will be in Cardiff on Saturday.

This will be their first time at a rugby match in a while, right? Just going from memory, they haven’t done anything with their rugby patronages since 2023 – both of them skipped everything last year. It’s notable in William’s case because he has been traveling all over to support England’s football team and his own favorite team, Aston Villa. William is a real football junkie, a real meathead when it comes to one sport above all others. Speaking of, Peggy revealed that he’s so football-mad that he often spends hours on Aston Villa forums and he also posts anonymously.

The Prince of Wales has described football’s television blackout rule as “irritating”. The Prince said that following his beloved Aston Villa was made more difficult by the long-standing rule, which blocks the broadcast of games at any level in England between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday.

He told The Sun: “Getting up to Villa Park isn’t the easiest thing for me but I like to watch as many games as I possibly can either by being there or on TV. I’ve tried to really make an effort to get there for all the Champions League games because it feels like that’s something you’ve got to make the most of when you’re in it. The biggest thing at home is trying to find it on TV sometimes because obviously you’ve got the Saturday 3pm blackout which is irritating.”

The blackout has been in place since the 1960s in order to protect match attendances and participation at grass-roots level. It has been criticised as outdated in recent years, but new television deals have secured it’s continuation until at least the 2028-29 season.

The Prince was in the stands at Villa Park on Wednesday night, wearing an Aston Villa scarf and cheering on his team with childhood friends Edward van Cutsem and Thomas van Straubenzee as they beat Club Brugge in the Champions League. He has been a regular guest at the stadium in recent years, having fallen in love with the club after being taken to a match by friends as a boy. He has also made Villa a family affair in the past by taking his two older children, George and Charlotte, to games home and away.

The Prince admitted that he contributes to supporters’ internet forums, sometimes posting his opinions anonymously.

“I like going on the forums, I can be on there for ages,” he told The Sun. “I listen to what other fans have to say and give them my opinions. I get quite into it, definitely. It’s important to have that debate.”

[From The Telegraph]

It’s really wild that football fans within England can’t watch their favorite teams on Saturdays while the games are happening in real time. I get the idea behind it, but in practice, it makes zero sense, especially for advertisers and TV rights. As for William spending hours on Aston Villa forums… does he not have better uses for his time? He’s the Prince of Wales, for goodness sake. Granted, I enjoy some of the tennis forums, but I usually just spend ten minutes to get a sense of match storylines and general gossip about the players and the sport. And I’m not the heir to the throne – I’m just some American tennis fan. The whole-ass Prince of Wales, a husband and a father of three, is spending HOURS on football forums??

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.