MY SIX NATIONS VERDICT

I THOROUGHLY enjoyed it. England were deserving champions but five of the six teams are pretty close in quality and there is a real feelgood factor again about Northern Hemisphere rugby. The tournament is always better when France are properly competitive and they seem to have re-discovered their bite. Scotland now are also very strong at home again. I have two hopes going forward. First, I’m more convinced than ever that it needs to be tightened up to five weeks. It’s a tournament not a Festival and should be played on five consecutive weekends just like the business end of the World Cup and, indeed, a Lions tour. That is the fitness British teams must aspire to, and the Six Nations must be used to prepare for the realities of a World Cup. Second, there are still too many dead rubbers. Only one match on Saturday actually counted for anything in the grand scheme of things. There is no logical reason why the bottom team should not be made to contest a play-off against the top team from the next tier. That will drive the matches at the bottom of the table and give them extra bite and relevance. It will make for an even better tournament. The Six Nations is there to help develop the game of rugby worldwide, but especially in Europe.