Six of the best: The numbers tell a story

If quality in sport is measured by attendance alone, then the Six Nations can not be beaten. Forget anything else, the Six Nations is the best-attended sporting event in the world, with an average crowd of 72,000.

That’s more than the NFL (68,400), the 2014 Fifa World Cup (53,592) and even the last Rugby World Cup that attracted an average audience of 51,621.

If you’re looking for Super Rugby on that list, then scroll down the report prepared by Uefa, European football’s governing body, and when you reach No 30 you will find it has an average audience of just 19,163.

Sure, comparing the two competitions is a bit like throwing a Mitre 10 Cup game up against an All Blacks test.

There is also the fact there are only 15 Six Nations matches compared to 136 round-robin games within four Super Rugby pools, including the crossover games before the third-ranked team from this side plays the top team from that side after the competition has had a break for a month after some teams have had a bye before they have another one three weeks later.

But how else is it better measured? How about global audiences? Well, the record for the number of people sitting down and watching a single Six Nations match was in 2015 when 10 million people enjoyed the tournament finale between England and France.

While Super Rugby has proved semi-popular across its playing boundaries, it struggles to attract a share of television audience in Australia, South Africa, Argentina and Japan.

Of course, test-match rugby always attracts more attention than domestic matches.

Judging which competition is better will also largely come down to whoever’s opinion you search for in either hemisphere.

Those in the north would laugh at anyone making a comparison from the south while those in the south would point to the entertainment value that appears squarely measured in New Zealand by the number of tries scored in each match.

For atmosphere alone it would be hard to argue it was not more fun sitting among 80,000 people at Twickenham than 8000 at Ellis Park.

There is also the small aspect of history. While the Six Nations can draw its roots way back to 1883, Super Rugby has only been played since 1996.

The Six Nations have also kept a simple format, expanding to include only Italy while Sanzaar has let Super Rugby grow into a bloated mess.