Six Nations a far better spectacle
OPINION: One-eyed All Blacks fans may demur, but the Six Nations has become a much more absorbing tournament to watch than the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship.
The All Blacks have won 12 of the last 18 Rugby Championship titles since 2000 – the year the European showpiece was expanded to six nations.
Steve Hansen’s side have clinched six of the last eight crowns and will be heavily favoured to retain the silverware this year.
It’s hard to imagine Australia or South Africa stopping the All Blacks annexing a third successive title in 2018.
By contrast, no team has won the Six Nations crown in three consecutive seasons.
England, mathematically at least, could achieve the feat this year, but would have to beat France and Ireland and hope the Irish lose to Scotland in Dublin this week.
Joe Schmidt’s Ireland are the favourites for their first title since 2015 with the Kiwi coach building unprecedented international depth in the Emerald Isle.
Four Six Nations teams – England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland – could, on any given day, beat one another, with France a sleeping giant yet to awake from an 11-year slumber.
The quality of the rugby may not be at All Black level – save for when Scotland’s Finn Russell channels his inner Beauden Barrett – but the Six Nations is a much better contest.
It benefits from a tradition dating back to the first European international match, between Scotland and England in 1893.
The ‘‘Home Nations’’ tournament graduated to the Five Nations when France were admitted in 1910.
The French were booted out – due to the taint of professionalism and concerns over the levels of violence in domestic matches – between 1932 and 1939.
But the Five Nations format returned after the World War II and endured until 2000 when Italy joined the tournament.
Since then, the Six Nations crown has been won by four nations. England lead the pack with six victories, France has five (though their last was in 2007), Wales four and Ireland three.
Italy have won the wooden spoon 12 times in 18 editions, with Scotland stirring their porridge with it on four occasions.
Wales – under Steve Hansen in 2003 – and France were both bottom of the class once.
The evenness and unpredictability of the Six Nations makes it a better series for neutral observers to follow than the Groundhog Day Rugby Championship.
I’d rather watch Ireland v Scotland this weekend, or France v England, than a clash between the Pumas and the Springboks.
That’s a shame because the Tri Nations used to be compulsory viewing, back in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the intensity of the rivalry between the All Blacks and the Wallabies was at an alltime high and when the Springboks were all but invincible at home.
In 2003, the All Blacks put 50 points on both Australia and South Africa to win the Tri Nations in spectacular style – yet a couple of months later lost to the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup semifinal.
It’s now nine years since the Boks won their last Rugby Championship trophy and test assignments at Ellis Park or Newlands no longer have the All Blacks quaking.
It’s surprising how far the Rugby Championship has slipped, standards-wise, in the past three years.
After all, the southern hemisphere supplied all four semifinalists at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England.
The stage should have been set for a gripping few editions of the Rugby Championship – especially with the All Blacks losing so much world-class talent after the Class of 2015 hung up their test boots.
Yet the All Blacks’ rise has been matched by a sharp decline in the Wallabies’ and Springboks’ standards.
There is the odd aberration – the Boks-All Blacks game in Cape Town last year was a nailbiter.
But the Rugby Championship has become the All Blacks’ laydown misere and it’s not likely to be any different this year.
It also can’t hold a candle to the Six Nations for match-day atmosphere – the singing at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium is a sound to behold and there were delirious scenes at Murrayfield for Scotland’s Calcutta Cup conquest of Eddie Jones’ England.
So set the alarm for 3.15am tomorrow for Ireland v Scotland from Dublin’s Lansdowne Road, and stay tuned for the French Revolution against England.