Over two hundred guests walked the red carpet at Marble Arch’s Frameless, an internationally-renowned venue for immersive art exhibitions. They were treated to the opening episode of Full Contact, screened inside a breath-taking space onto which was projected a realistic, 360-degree stadium.
The eight-part series, produced by the influential Box to Box Films (Drive to Survive), will be available to stream worldwide to Netflix subscribers from January 24 – just a week before this year’s Guinness Men’s Six Nations campaign gets underway with a Friday night clash of two European giants, France and Ireland.
An illustrious list of attendees, ranging from sporting icons to stars of the screen, rubbed shoulders with the protagonists of Full Contact. The latter – including among them Scotland's Finn Russell, Italy’s Seb Negri and Stephen Varney, and England’s Ellis Genge and Marcus Smith – are front and centre of a series that will showcase rugby to a whole new global audience.
The series focuses on the unforgettable 2023 Championship, delving into the lives and personalities of the men who produce extraordinary performances on the pitch for their country.
Episode one follows two of the game’s most talented stars in fly-halves Smith and Russell, against the backdrop of international rugby’s oldest and most fiercely contested fixture: England versus Scotland. For most viewers, it will be their first time hearing from these two lynchpins of their countries in such an unguarded manner, with the remaining episodes promising more of the same.
Though one could conceivably compare the talents of Russell or Smith to the canvas work of a Cézanne or Monet, the Full Contact screening was nonetheless a visually stimulating juxtaposition: the premiere of the most anticipated rugby docuseries of all time screened in a bold, eye-catching setting.
Rugby has taken a step into the limelight, in more ways than one.
Six Nations: Full Contact will be available to all Netflix subscribers on January 24.
