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Union has always been a disgrace

This is a shameful part of history that needs to be remembered. That 2 million Francs in current terms is worth over 1 billion in AUD in assets that remain stolen.

And if there is no hooker or prop it would be a way for a team to force uncontested scrums.

I didn't know all of these laws. Thank you

Thanks for breaking this fallacy

They’ll be back their ‘WELSH’ !

I’m old enough to remember double-banking in the line out ! One change that was influential, but on the equipment rather that legal side, was simply the introduction of plasticised waterproof balls. Accurate line out throws were impossible with the old puddings. In passing, I’d be happy to see the end of the line out drive. Nearly the scores in today’s matches came from that, and it gets tedious. It’s no good coaches telling players to avoid conceding attacking line outs: penalties are a bit of a lottery.

Sooo...Wales relegated?

My suggestion is to have a European championship every 4 years similar to the Euros. It would replace the 6 Nations that year. That would mean the general population would get to watch other teams play every 2 years instead of every 4 years. 3/4 of years would still have a normal 6 Nations.

Totally agree about getting more eyes on the REC. Some of these ideas are very simple to implement too, like getting them posted on the BBCs website and other publications. That could help viewing figures, the prospect of bigger sponsorship and TV deals, allowing some of these amateur nations to go professional, and thus raise standards

The fact you made this tells me you know it's wrong. Yes born in England with a Scottish parent fine. But what about the South Africans the 2 from Australia one of them has 15 caps for them. Why don't you tell us why Scotland have not selected a player from their U20's for 4 years!!!! Italy U20's beat Scotland U20's 47-14 !!!! Scotland will soon have a team with zero Scottish born players.

Definitively not. Italy is becoming better and better as this year's tournament shows, and behind it there is a huge gap to Portugal and Georgia. That Portugal lost against Belgium in the Rugby Europe Championship and Belgium later lost against Germany and is now playing against Poland for 7. place is perfect proof. It neither helps Portugal nor Georgia to play against the Top-5 in Europe and being smashed. And it doesn't help the Rugby Europe Championship, when Italy is smashing the seven others there.

I thought this bullshit of relegation had been shelved forever. And yet, every now and then it resurfaces. It's a pity that never like this year there has been such a balanced Six Nations (it could be the best 6N ever for Italy, while on the other hand, there's one of the worst Georgia teams ever). You got unlucky.

The 6N should have relegation but sadly it will never happen due to the tournament being owned by the participants.

There is a big deal with this theory. All the six rugby federations inside the 6 Nation are actually equally owners of the tournament, so it's impossible to take off a team and substitutes it with another. And if we talk about expand (is the case for relegation and promotion), thats' mean lower quotes and lower incomes for all the federation inside the tournament. I think no one would like to lose his pice of the cake expecially in this historical period where many federations struggle with the actual incomes. So probably would be the end of high level rugby in states like Wales, Italy, Scotland and seeing the actual financial Premiership situation even in England. But i totally agree with the rest, expanding the U20 tournamnet and makin tv deals would be great.

Regardless of money matters I think a 5N format would be the most spectacular. Otherwise I think that Georgia deserves the piace, after 25 years of poor Italy. And also Portugal seems ready

I like the idea of bringing more attention to the rugby Europe championship but I would rather extend the 6 nations to 7 if a team proves themselves consistently at world cups than introduce relegation. You don’t want to have any chance of the bottom team swapping year upon year with whoever gets promoted.

All of your ideas could be applied to the Premiership and Championship in England.

This tournament has some great rugby, but a massive lack of funding such a shame. But some great games this year Belgium and netherlands and germany played some great rugby

There is no route to relegation from the 6 nations. For each of the 6, the gameday income, gate receipts and TV right, is about 50% of their income. The autumn internationals being the other 50%. Any team that was relegated would be insolvent. As they own the competition jointly and any changes require unanimous agreement, it would be impossible for them to agree it, turkeys would not vote for Christmas.

I would prefer expansion

Brits aren't going to watch Belgian rugby any more than Spaniards want to watch British basketball or Swedes want to watch French ice hockey. European rugby needs to grow with support from their own fans.

Instead of promotion relegation I think it's more payable to expand into 8 teams with 2 pool and a playoff at the end of the tournament for begging rights The finance of the game is barely hanging by a thread so you don't want financially ruin the T1 team that got relegated

Would be great. But unlikely, right ?

its actually a private comptetion not governed by world rugby, so it aint going to happen as italy wale and scotland would oppose as they would lose financially, there is actually 3 top tier rugby comps in europe! Challenge cup has introduced the EU rugby to the comp now , expand the autumns nation cup for tier 2 countries! also a comp like u20 for tier 2 nations to ear WRC sports would be good!

The canal+ tv deal is split two thirds to one third for the top 14 and pro d2.

Merci 😊

Some of these matches are the oldest rivalries in sport so why change it for meaningless match ups?

La retrocessione nel rugby non è una buona idea. Nel rugby non ci sono tempi morti ed il gioco è sempre in proiezione. Questo fa sì che le differenze qualitative di ogni tipo tra le formazioni si ingigantiscano rispetto ad altri sport. Passare ad un campionato superiore quindi necessita di un periodo di adattamento lunghissimo, spesso di più di una generazione di giocatori, e di un miglioramento complessivo del movimento rugbistico nazionale per reggere il confronto. La Francia fu ammessa nel "Quattro nazioni" nel 1910, il torneo quindi diventa il "Cinque nazioni". Nelle prime sei edizioni la Francia vince in totale due partite, poi la Grande Guerra ferma tutto. Alla ripresa colleziona una serie di cucchiai di legno che inducono i francesi a ritirarsi dal torneo nel 1931. Riprende dopo la fine della WWII riuscendo a fare, tra le altre, due buone annate e due pessime, finché, dopo essersi classificata a pari merito di vittorie un paio di volte, riesce a vincere il torneo per la prima volta nel 1959. Quarantanove anni dopo il suo esordio. Da quando il torneo è poi diventato "Sei nazioni" con l'ingresso dell'Italia, la storia praticamente si sta ripetendo. E' fisiologico in uno sport di questo tipo. Inserire ogni anno nuove squadre "promosse" significa semplicemente mandarle al macello, retrocedere quelle presenti significa invece stopparne la crescita. Anche se sembra che certe formazioni europee siano quasi al livello "Sei nazioni", non è affatto così. Non è possibile applicare al rugby formule idonee al football. Siamo su livelli diversi. Se il Manchester City incontra una formazione di quinta categoria poi si va tutti insieme a bere una birra. Se i Saracens incontrassero una formazione di quinta categoria poi quest'ultima andrebbe tutta insieme in ospedale, nella speranza di uscirne senza transitare dall'obitorio. Tanto per essere chiari.

This is nonsense. There is already a competition coming very soon that has promotion and relegation which uses the autumn and summer fixtures. The Six Nations isn't broken. Don't change it. Having promotion and relegation in the Six Nations would jeopardis the Triple Crown and Calcutta Cup. It must not happen.

Not going to happen.