Since the Rugby World Cup debacle, Lancaster has quickly rebuilt the team’s reputation off the field, reiterating the need for discipline and commitment to the cause – but all this may count for nothing if results on the field do not go England’s way.

England has not won in Edinburgh since 2004, and although history is unlikely to count for much in terms of the result, there’s no escaping the heritage of the oldest rugby fixture in the world.

England and Scotland first played each other at Rugby Union in 1871 at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, with Scotland the victors by a score of 1-0 – needless to say the scoring system was slightly different back then. The teams now compete each year for the Calcutta Cup, so called after a group of expats in India formed a rugby club, created a trophy from melted-down Indian rupees, and then donated it to the RFU in 1878 on the basis that it should be competed for annually.

To this day, there have been 129 matches between the two sides, of which England has won 69 and Scotland 42, with 18 draws – the overall record is firmly in England’s favour, but the Scots have had the upper hand in the contests at Murrayfield in the last few years. The most recent fixture took place in Auckland in the Rugby World Cup in October, when England’s last-gasp victory ended the Scots’ campaign.

There has been talk of vengeance for that defeat to motivate Scotland, but the reality of over 130 years of fierce rugby battles against the Auld enemy will provide sufficient motivation, and the task facing a young England side will not be easy.

Submit an answer to the question in our daily Advent Facebook post and you could be in with the chance of winning a prize ranging from a Magnum of Bollinger Special Cuvee to  a leather-bound Bollinger diary. The winner will be drawn at random from all the correct answers. Terms and Conditions apply.

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Following the announcement on the 3rd November that the 23rd Bond Film will be called Skyfall and is to be released in October 2012, the rumours have been flying thick and fast.

Will Adele sing the theme song (always a guaranteed route to cultural permanence)? Will this be Daniel Craig’s last Bond film? Will the budgets equal those lavished on Quantum of Solace? And crucially, does the starry cast list demonstrate Mendes’s determination to make this a multi-Oscar winner?

Craig’s fellow cast members include Dame Judi Dench – upon whose character, M, this film focuses – Albert Finney, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw.

As filming started in London on Monday 7th November, the paparazzi came out in force, capturing stills of Craig emerging from a Range Rover. Confirmed London locations include Smithfield Market, Whitehall and – predominantly – Pinewood Studios.

Champagne Bollinger has been Bond’s champagne of choice since its first appearance on screen in ‘Live and Let Die’ in 1973, when the Brocolli-Wilson family decided that Bollinger best represented Bond’s impeccable taste.

Our big question is which Bollinger Cuvée will feature – something that might not even be announced until the film is shown. What do you think? It was Bollinger R.D. 1975 in View to a Kill, and Bollinger R.D. 1969 in Moonraker, both of which Bond recognised by vintage. Do follow this blog for more Bond Bollinger moments, which we will be covering over the next few months as filming continues.

Great champagne houses don’t come any greater than Bollinger. The story of how it got to be that way, growing from a small family firm into a global icon of winemaking excellence, is remarkable – as is the part played by its legendary figurehead, Lily Bollinger.

Our love for certain inanimate things – paintings, shoes, sofas, bottles of chapagne – usually has something to do with the stories we attach to them. Sometimes the stories are our own, sometimes other people’s. Champagne is perhaps unique in this respect. Not only do most of us have a particular champagne moment that we like to remember, but most of us can also remember a champagne moment as described by someone else.

And nobody ever described the champagne moment better than Lily Bollinger. “I only drink champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad,” she famously quipped. “Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I’m thirsty.” It is impossible to think of a wittier, more elegant or compelling incitement to open a bottle of Bollinger immediately.

Lily was one of the great characters in an industry that has produced more than its fair share of them. It is said that she had not even tasted champagne before the party to celebrate her engagement to Jacques Bollinger, great-grandson of the company’s founder, in 1923. When Jacques died in 1941, Lily, at his request, took over.

Old-timers in Ay still remember seeing her patrol her vineyards on a bicycle throughout the war. When the Germans occupied the Bollinger maison, she slept in the cellars. It was from these cellars that she emerged in 1944 to greet the American soldiers who had arrived just in time to stop the retreating German army from blowing up the entire estate.

Lily managed Bollinger until 1971, when her nephews Claude d’Hautefeuille and Christian Bizot succeeded her. The family remains closely involved in the day-to-day management of the business. Your correspondent had the good fortune to lunch with Claude’s wife, Mimi, at her home recently.

Though just a few days short of her 90^th birthday, Mimi’s memory and sense of humour were razor-sharp. She was full of stories about the indomitable Lily. Mimi recalled how she and her children would cross the street in Ay to watch The Magic Roundabout on Lily’s big old black-and-white television, and how the youngsters would discreetly stare at their aunt while she smoked and place bets on when and where the ash from her cigarette would fall.

Bollinger was, naturally, an essential feature of Mimi’s lunch menu. Each bottle opened was a mute but nonetheless eloquent reminder of the reason why Bollinger is as revered today as it was during Lily’s lifetime: it remains, quite simply, a byword for excellence in traditional champagne-making. Which both is and is not a different story.

(From an original article in Vanity Fair – December 2011 issue)

The Champagne region suffered relentless attacks during the early part of the 20th century as a result of the First and Second World Wars.

The front lines remained in the same location on the undulating chalk plain north of the ancient city of Reims for both wars, and as a result, this historical city was a focal point of the German attacks on the occupied region. French propaganda – citing Germany’s deliberate destruction of culturally important French buildings – used images of Reims cathedral in ruins.

During the war the many underground caves cut into the chalk under the city, normally used as the famed Champagne cellars of the region, provided shelter for the Champenois, the majority of whom refused to evacuate their homes and give in to the German threat. The French army used these tunnels in the resistance, employing their unique knowledge of the winding tunnels to navigate the area, undetected by the enemy.

Nowadays Champagne is a popular tourist destination, not only for the sparkling stuff but also for the magnificent medieval cathedrals of Amiens, Reims and Laon, the lovely town of Troyes and the historic village of Louarre with its beautiful Benedictine abbey.

As a result of the conflicts which took place here, Champagne is also home to numerous war memorials and soldiers’ cemeteries, which are places of pilgrimage for visitors from overseas whose forefathers died fighting here.

As a woman, Lily’s new role in an industry dominated by men was to be no mean feat. Lily took on the challenge of running the flourishing business with astonishing determination, tirelessly touring the Bollinger vineyards on her bicycle, overseeing every stage of viticulture and winemaking.

In an era of austerity as a result of war, Lily’s response to such a challenge was to be her making as an icon in the world of Champagne.

At Bollinger, Lily remains a figurehead and powerful inspiration in Bollinger’s insistence on the independence that allows them to produce one of the greatest wines of Champagne.

In 1961 she came to London to release the first vintage of Bollinger RD (récemment dégorgé or “recently disgorged”), incidentally from the 1952 vintage. It was on this occasion 50 years ago this month that Mme Bollinger famously quoted:

“I drink my Champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it — unless I’m thirsty.”

Hopes were cautiously high going into the game for the fans, with France’s loss to Tonga the week before evidence that England should have the confidence to win the game and progress to the semi-finals. Alas, it was not to be, as France dominated the early stages, racing to a two-try lead within the first half hour. From that point, it was always going to be an uphill struggle for the men in white.

Once again, England offered little in the way of attacking penetration. Despite scoring two tries, the running lines lacked direction and purpose, with Manu Tuilagi the only exception. Too often, the backs would drift on slanting runs towards the touch lines with no-one straightening and keeping the French defence honest. The forwards were often caught lurking in the backline too – nothing new to write about there – though looking up to see a backline consisting of a prop, a hooker and a second row at one point must have had Ben Youngs wondering where to pass.

Whilst England’s attack was lacking, their defence also showed uncharacteristic fragility. France’s two tries resulted from a wealth of missed tackles and shoddy defending. French wing Vincent Clerc slipped through no less than four half-hearted tackles for their opener, before England overcommitted three men to shove Alexis Palisson into touch, leaving Maxime Medard completely unmarked to receive the offload back inside, who waltzed the few yards to the try line unchallenged for their second try.

France now face a Wales team who are playing some outstanding rugby and on the evidence of the campaign so far, Wales will start as strong favourites. France, however, will be buoyed by this win and will be looking to make it through to another World Cup final.

In a weekend of two Southern Hemisphere quarter finals, and two Northern Hemisphere, it was encouraging to see the more tries and open play by the teams from north of the equator. So much criticism has been levelled by the Tri Nations powerhouses at ‘knockout rugby’, where teams look to keep it tight and shy from playing with an expansive style. It is therefore enjoyable for the fans to see the teams happy to play with attacking flair to make it through to the semi finals.

Whilst England are now setting off on the long journey home, we look forward to the next two weekends of fiercely competitive rugby. A new champion will be crowned, now that defenders South Africa have lost to Australia, and the quadrennial excitement builds as Rugby World Cup 2011 moves towards its final stages.