Ireland six nations champions!

[offshorerules]

There's lots of talk about how to improve the 6ns today. But is it just me or did we just not witness arguably the best day of rugby ever, with the current fixture rules, with the current points system and with the current playing rules. Why change anything?

Don't agree to be honest, Italy totally capitulated and the French performance was absolutely compatible with the fact that their coach is a clown.

Give me ASM vs Leinster or Rog's last minute drop goal vs Wales any day, that's top notch competitive rugby with world class defence AND attack.

That's ok agreement is not compulsory but I think I've got a point if nothing else.

[berniemac67]

Liam Toland made a good point about the Heaslip tackle. He asked himself if Denton would go to such lengths on the other side and the answer was no, the effort our lads put in is incredible.

That is the biggest condemnation of a side you can offer, yes Ireland have better players, yes Ireland had better coaching but there is no excuse for a lack of effort when your playing international rugby. Denton and co were a rabble this weekend and need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

and Italy and France played out of their skins? pullleeeez.

loving the welsh and english reactions after saturday. loving all those sour grapes and looking forward to one of them going out in the group stages come the Autumn.

[paddyor]

This ones better.

Does sound a bit like Jason Byrne

[fourthirtythree]

Liam Toland made a good point about the Heaslip tackle. He asked himself if Denton would go to such lengths on the other side and the answer was no, the effort our lads put in is incredible.

That is the biggest condemnation of a side you can offer, yes Ireland have better players, yes Ireland had better coaching but there is no excuse for a lack of effort when your playing international rugby. Denton and co were a rabble this weekend and need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

and Italy and France played out of their skins? pullleeeez.

loving the welsh and english reactions after saturday. loving all those sour grapes and looking forward to one of them going out in the group stages come the Autumn.

I don't think that's what he was saying.

[JB1973]

Liam Toland made a good point about the Heaslip tackle. He asked himself if Denton would go to such lengths on the other side and the answer was no, the effort our lads put in is incredible.

That is the biggest condemnation of a side you can offer, yes Ireland have better players, yes Ireland had better coaching but there is no excuse for a lack of effort when your playing international rugby. Denton and co were a rabble this weekend and need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

and Italy and France played out of their skins? pullleeeez.

loving the welsh and english reactions after saturday. loving all those sour grapes and looking forward to one of them going out in the group stages come the Autumn.

I thought Italy in the second half were equally disgraceful, france defence was appalling as well.

No sour grapes here you won the tournament because you were the best team and because you gave less than 60 points in 5 tests , including 3 away matches.

Full credit to you and your side.

ps I wouldn't be so sure one of wales/England will go out at the group stages either or both of us are capable of beating the ausssies

[MylesNaGapoleen]

lads....have to say....murrayfield was insane. everyone left after the scottish game to watch the english game on the big screens around the burger/beer stands. around about half-time...an announcement was made inviting fans to go back in to the west stand....some magical moments in there....atmosphere was incredible. scots and irish singing the french national anthem....and when the irish team burst onto the pitch when owens blew the final whistle in twickers was a moment I will never forget..everyone went bezerk. un-f*cking-forgettable.

can't imagine who tense it must have been for them watching in the dressing rooms and in the tunnel.

an epic night followed in edinburgh. scots were up for the craic as well and the whole city was hopping.

didn't want the night to end.

watched the games last night....that heaslip tackle where he knocked the ball out of the scots hands as he went over the line was something I missed (I was in the north stand). what a tackle and what a performance by Ireland. It is true that the scots were poor but I think the english claiming they rolled over and "made it easy" is horlicks. we were totally dominant in the second half...in all areas.

hope things works out for schmidt and his kid...

[cormac]

I think it could be worth looking at the french system for try bonus points, i.e. you need to score three more tries than the opposition to get the bonus point. Might be worth experimenting with for two seasons to see how it impacts.

Against awarding bonus points for losing matches. You lose a 6N game, you deserve nathin'.

[simonokeeffe]

one of the possible arguments against 6n bonus points is its the only non home and away major annual tournament, thus chances of bonus points not evenly or fairly distributed, also its the only league/pool based tournament ie no playoffs

RWC has bonus points but largely irrelevant there

[Golf Man]

one of the possible arguments against 6n bonus points is its the only non home and away major annual tournament, thus chances of bonus points not evenly or fairly distributed, also its the only league/pool based tournament ie no playoffs

RWC has bonus points but largely irrelevant there

I'm not sure we need them but not for the reasons you outline. The competition is inherently unfair regarding home/away situation (obv one of eth quirks that makes the competition imo) so not sure bonus points would make any difference here

Rugby Championship doesn't have playoffs and has bonus points. RWC you have 4 games, 6N you have 5 - standard is lesser with two minnows but bonus points are as relevenat there as they would be in the 6N (for example bonus points could well come into play in the Eng/Wales/Aus group this year)

I can see the benefit in trying it for a couple of years once winne is guareanteed to win outright with with 2 bp for winning eth GS or with 5 points for win - with a possible outcome then of two teamns on 25 points each and the winner decided by head to head

[jezzer]

one of the possible arguments against 6n bonus points is its the only non home and away major annual tournament, thus chances of bonus points not evenly or fairly distributed, also its the only league/pool based tournament ie no playoffs

RWC has bonus points but largely irrelevant there

Fixing my biggest gripe about the tournament would fix this problem too.

The schedule needs to be rotated better. Instead of Ireland always playing England and France home or away together, the teams you face from one year to another and whether you get two or three home games needs to be rotated. The way it's structured at the moment is amateur hour.

[domhnallj]

one of the possible arguments against 6n bonus points is its the only non home and away major annual tournament, thus chances of bonus points not evenly or fairly distributed, also its the only league/pool based tournament ie no playoffs

RWC has bonus points but largely irrelevant there

Fixing my biggest gripe about the tournament would fix this problem too.

The schedule needs to be rotated better. Instead of Ireland always playing England and France home or away together, the teams you face from one year to another and whether you get two or three home games needs to be rotated. The way it's structured at the moment is amateur hour.

I don't like change.

[simonokeeffe]

one of the possible arguments against 6n bonus points is its the only non home and away major annual tournament, thus chances of bonus points not evenly or fairly distributed, also its the only league/pool based tournament ie no playoffs

RWC has bonus points but largely irrelevant there

I'm not sure we need them but not for the reasons you outline. The competition is inherently unfair regarding home/away situation (obv one of eth quirks that makes the competition imo) so not sure bonus points would make any difference here

Rugby Championship doesn't have playoffs and has bonus points. RWC you have 4 games, 6N you have 5 - standard is lesser with two minnows but bonus points are as relevenat there as they would be in the 6N (for example bonus points could well come into play in the Eng/Wales/Aus group this year)

I can see the benefit in trying it for a couple of years once winne is guareanteed to win outright with with 2 bp for winning eth GS or with 5 points for win - with a possible outcome then of two teamns on 25 points each and the winner decided by head to head

RC is home and away so at least thats fair (BP)

would still need a very freaky set of results even in a tough pool like one mentioned or where 2nd place may be tight eg Samoa/Scotland for bonus points to have bearing

[Peg Leg]

Georgia won the 6N B Grandslam
Scotland got the wooden spoon......
Could Georgia offer more than Scotland next year? Maybe.

Would there be merit in having a promotional position available to Georgia, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Spain or Russia?

[johng]

Tradition. You can't feck the oldest nation out. They won't even put bonus points in ffs.

Plus, our B team hockeyed Georgia in November

[JB1973]

Georgia won the 6N B Grandslam
Scotland got the wooden spoon......
Could Georgia offer more than Scotland next year? Maybe.

Would there be merit in having a promotional position available to Georgia, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Spain or Russia?

why not have a play off between the top of divison b and the bottom of the 6 nations ?

It's all hypothetical but if Italy/Scotland knew they ran the risk of relegation from the 6 nations would we have seen more efforts in the matches last weekend?

lets be honest if the scots and Italians played like they did on Saturday your b team would have hockeyed them to

[blockhead]

one of the possible arguments against 6n bonus points is its the only non home and away major annual tournament, thus chances of bonus points not evenly or fairly distributed, also its the only league/pool based tournament ie no playoffs

RWC has bonus points but largely irrelevant there

Fixing my biggest gripe about the tournament would fix this problem too.

The schedule needs to be rotated better. Instead of Ireland always playing England and France home or away together, the teams you face from one year to another and whether you get two or three home games needs to be rotated. The way it's structured at the moment is amateur hour.

Shaddup, we're winning!

[blockhead]

Georgia won the 6N B Grandslam
Scotland got the wooden spoon......
Could Georgia offer more than Scotland next year? Maybe.

Would there be merit in having a promotional position available to Georgia, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Spain or Russia?

Remember when England openly muted the idea of leaving the 6N because the rest of us were "holding them back"? A countries strength is cyclical, we could have been dumped out in the 90s.
Relegating Scotland would kill them off completely.

[MylesNaGapoleen]

the last two years has produced sensational drama on the last day....I wouldn't go with bonus points....mainly because of the home/away thing on alternate years.

making a try 7 points might be a smarter way to go. 3 penalties to make up 1 try - a no brainer.

as an aside....am really dissapointed argentina didn't join a 7N...can you imagine going to barcelona (their likely home base for a 7N) in feb/march for a game?

[paddyor]

Georgia won the 6N B Grandslam
Scotland got the wooden spoon......
Could Georgia offer more than Scotland next year? Maybe.

Would there be merit in having a promotional position available to Georgia, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Spain or Russia?

Whatever merit there might be, there wouldn't be as much cash from ticket sales and possibly TV money. Anything that might change the finances of the unions won't be considered. Plus as johng said our b team hockeyed them back in November.

[Golf Man]

the last two years has produced sensational drama on the last day....I wouldn't go with bonus points....mainly because of the home/away thing on alternate years.

making a try 7 points might be a smarter way to go. 3 penalties to make up 1 try - a no brainer.

as an aside....am really dissapointed argentina didn't join a 7N...can you imagine going to barcelona (their likely home base for a 7N) in feb/march for a game?

In some senses I agree that we shouldn't have bonus points, but the drama of the last day shouldn't overshadow some of the poor fare on show for the other 80% of the tournament - give it a try see if it has an effect

7 points for a try would be a desperate idea imo - you would see far more cynical penalties as the punishment would be relatively so much less (bit like when there was a glut of penalties changed to free kicks - just resulted in contionuous cynical play

Not sure if Argentina were ever in the running for a spot in Europe (SA would make far more sense) but game v Argentina in Barcelona wouldn't attract me at all - no Argentinians there!

I do think the possibility of relegation/promotion (and its never going to be straight out relegation) should be put in place - the likles of Georgia/Russia etc need to have a pathway to the top level; (bit like Ireland at cricket). There is a bit of a danger that the smaller countries will focus all attention on 7s now its in the Olympics rather than on the real game

You want to improve the standard of play and encourage more open expansive play - start by consistent refereeing of the ruck and particularly off side line - would reolve a huge number of issues imo