Blain’s Very Late Morning Porridge Feb 16th 2026 – Sliding, Jambos and Rugby, Sports that matter“He’s kicked that one so high it’s come down with a touch of frost on it..”The world may be going to hell in a handbasket, and tomorrow is the start of the Year of the Fire-Horse (the most volatile of the 60-year Chinese zodiac cycle) but what a fantastic weekend of sports we just had. It’s all positive stuff… Let’s enjoy it while we can.Apologies for the very late Morning Porridge this morning after a very early flight back from Edinburgh. Tomorrow there will be a full breakdown on the market implications of ‘who-said-what-but-meant-that” at the Munich Security Conference and what’s afoot in AI stocks, but this morning… let’s enjoy the good things in life and talk about sports, their influence and importance, whether it be in Olympic gold in Skeleton, Football, or Scotland’s magnificent win on Saturday in the 6 Nations Rugby at Murrayfield.Sports matter – not just in terms of the potential opportunities to monetise sporting success (of which there are many), but also in terms of concepts such as soft power and belief, and how that can influence sentiment and growth. After Saturday’s win I was a one-man economic boom-time in Edinburgh’s hostelries on Saturday. Might oak-trees stem from little acorns, and small sporting successes can make small nations mightier yet.

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