Should the 6 Nations be an open competition (w/ relegations and promotions)?

[The Jones Boy]

So it's official?
It should be an open competition?

 

[welshglory]

As the 6 nation's are so vehemently opposed to promotion and relagation, as has been stated by even the chairman himself then they should at least get involved with promoting and assisting the ENC to raise the profile there.

The WR should be putting more pressure on them, however that's easier said than done considering they hold 11 of the seats in the council.

Can they really not see the long term benefits of the whole European game growing?

 

[dragos03]

To begin with, Romania and Georgia should get to play at least one guaranteed match every year against one of the 6N teams.

Another easy way to give more meaningful matches to the ENC would be to play tests against the Tier 1 A teams. Romania has been beating Italy A and Argentina Jaguars for years now but England Saxons or Ireland Wolfhounds would be a step up. These A teams are strong and even if playing them wouldn't be a full official test, a win would be a great achievement. Italy A and the Jaguars are also decent opponents who should play against Russia, Spain or Portugal to help them raise their level.

Also, Tier 2 nations should have equal financial rights. Romania has a team in the Challenge Cup and generates some money for the competition (as the Romanian TV stations have been buying the TV rights for it, unlike the Italian ones for example). However, the Romanian team gets a ZERO share of the funds. During the RWC the Tier 2 get next to nothing as well.

And finally, Tier 2 nations rarely have their strongest squad available due to direct and indirect club pressure. For example, in the match against Germany this weekend, Romania missed 8 key starters. Usually the clubs don't openly stop players from joining the national team but they are told in private their contracts would not be renewed if they do. Romanian lock Marius Sarbe recently lost his contract at Tarbes (Pro D2) for this reason. World Rugby really needs to find a way to force the clubs to treat Tier 2 players equally.

 

[welshglory]

I reckon that WR should schedule matches between Georgia, Romania with Italy and Scotland during the Autumn, Canada, USA and Japan as well.

There's no reason for the Sanzar nations to tour Italy and Scotland, its not like they sell out stadiums when they tour Sanzar in the summer like the rest of the 6 nation's do.

 

[goodNumber10]

I reckon that WR should schedule matches between Georgia, Romania with Italy and Scotland during the Autumn, Canada, USA and Japan as well.

There's no reason for the Sanzar nations to tour Italy and Scotland, its not like they sell out stadiums when they tour Sanzar in the summer like the rest of the 6 nation's do.

LOL! I love how all the Welsh, now their teams on a bit of a roll, are all abandon the Scots and italians. How would you have felt if in 1999 if the 6 nations had been kept and Wales were kicked out for being the worst team over the last 15 years to allow Italy in?

How short some memories are, How many times have Scotland failed to get out the world cup Pool compared to the mighty Wales?

Scotland is a pretty well respected country in regards to New Zealand and Australia, i'm pretty sure they'll have no problems generating revenue from their test matches.

The simple fact is the 6nations generates shed loads of revenue, none of the teams will leave, they will not introduce relegation because the financial implications don't bear thinking about.

 

[ZHCH]

I would humbly suggest the following:

1) Two groups of four in which each team plays the other teams once (three games in total).
2) Thereby Group A would consist of the previous years winner and the teams that came fourth, fifth and eigth in the previous competition.
3) Consequently, Group B would consist of the second, third, sixth and seventh placed teams of the previous year.
4) The playing schedule would be something like:
Round 1: 8 vs 5, 4 vs 1, 7 vs 6 and 3 vs 2
Round 2: 1 vs 8, 5 vs 4, 2 vs 7 and 6 vs 3
Round 3: 1 vs 5, 4 vs 8, 2 vs 6 and 3 vs 7
5) Round 4 would be a sort of semi-final day: A1 vs B2, B1 vs A2, A3 vs B4, B3 vs A4
6) Round 5 would than sort out the exaxt positioning for next years tournament:
For position 1 and 2: winner A1/B2 vs winner B1/A2, for position 3 and 4: loser A1/B2 vs loser B1/A2, for position 5 and 6: winner A3/B4 vs winner B3/A4 and finally for position 7 and 8: loser A3/B4 vs. loser B3/A4.
7) Round 6 is a play-off between a lower tier nation and the team that lost the game for position 7. This game could be played at a later date which is not directly linked to the 6N-tournament.

This format would see the established teams play five games, as they did until now.
It would also allow some teams, like Georgia, who have been on the brink of growing for a while now, to finally get some regular, competitive matches against larger opposition.
It would give the home nations a certain amount of security, while still giving lower teams a needed incentive to grow and invest.
It would bring the game to a larger audience.
It would give the game a true set of finals. This would spare us the annual discussion about how team a had an advantage because they knew how high they had to win etc.
Super saturday could be split up on two days.