Ronan O'Gara is one of the panellists on virgin media here in Ireland and he was saying at half-time that in these conditions kickers should be kicking without the tee as you hit a lower trajectory like hitting a 3 iron in golf.....
Well, at times it was like watching Neasden Under 11's second team playing with a bar of soap, but a win is a win
This was mooted when two SA teams joined the Pro 14 League, they're on a similar timeline to the Home Nations as opposed to 9-11 hours in Oz and NZ. Ultimately it's all about money, the 6 Nations is a far bigger tournament in terms of TV and sponsorship than it's Southern Hemisphere rival. As a rugby fan it's not something I'd like to see, the two hemispheres have always been separate and the traditions of the 5 Nations which then became the 6 Nations are of a competetion that has always been a highly competitive and well-matched despite Italy's lack of progress. Hopefully the organisers will realise they've got the best competition in the rugby world...
It's about time that the RFU introduced promotion and relegation from the 6 nations which would allow sides such as Georgia, Romania to gain much needed 1st tier experience plus much needed finance to develop the game...…….
To give you some idea of how Storm Ciara has been hitting the country here's a picture from the Ladies 6 Nations game between Ireland & Wales this afternoon played at Donnybrook in Dublin...…. please log in to view this image
Or make it 8 nations with 2 groups of 4 round robin, top two from both groups going into semis so you get 1 2 3 and 4th the bottom 2 of each group the same with 8th place playing the 9th ranked team for next season. All teams would still play 5 games, even consider Canada and USA.
That was the hail shower I got caught in earlier. Went for Sunday dinner in Swords (blast from the past) and in the dash from the hotel to the car I got soaked to the skin. There was a huge clap of thunder too. Shocking day today.