There are few things worse than having a bet on a game but not being able to watch it. Of course if you end up winning it’s not that bad but a loss somehow feels worse when you have not even had the chance to see just how your investment went up in smoke.

With that in mind and with a season of Super Rugby on the horizon I asked Trish to buy me a Walka last week. To those who have not seen one yet the Walka is essentially a mini TV about the size of the palm of your hand and you can watch selected channels including SS1-4 as long as you have signal.

We went away this weekend and aside from following scores on Twitter I never paid much attention to sport. Driving home though I began to think of the big Six Nations match between Ireland and Wales and having backed Ireland for the Triple Crown I was keen to watch it.

At around this time my knee started throbbing (I swear this is genuine) and I indicated to Trish that at some point perhaps she should get behind the wheel to give me a rest. A quarter of an hour later we had swopped positions and I casually reached into the middle compartment for the Walka detecting more than just a hint of suspicion in my wife’s expression.

We were close enough to Joburg to get signal and soon the soothing tones of the respective anthems were ringing out but these were soon followed by complaints from the kids who had clearly forgotten the countless times I had suffered silently through Noddy DVD’s on previous trips.

Digging in the box I discovered the head phones which meant not only could I put the commentary as loud as I wanted but conveniently the background noise was also blocked out and with now knee now feeling much better I was free to enjoy the game while Trish navigated us safely through an early evening Highveld storm.

We were home in time for me to see Ireland blow a handy lead and lose in the last minute meaning my Triple Crown bet had fallen at the first leg but a negative betting start aside I am very happy with my new toy and it is simply a must have for rugby punters over the coming months.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 10th of February 2012.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled “Best Bets”.