Is it only me that's sort of lost interest in this competition, no threads on many other forums either.
In a vain attempt at getting myself interested I would predict that the first batch of games will produce home wins. Indeed I have a feeling that this current Scots side won't win a match and it is echoed by my work collegues as well.
I can't see any side that has showed they are good enough to win a Grand Slam, indeed there may not be a Triple Crown winner either.With a lot of injuries in most of the teams, this could be a fairly mediocre fare. I wonder if the Welsh will fill the Millenium this year, or are they going to see even more empty seats. I hope to be at the Calcutta Cup game subject to my mate getting me a ticket.
6 Nations apathy
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tigerburnie
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6 Nations apathy
"If you want entertainment, go to the theatre," says Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill. "Rugby players play the game to win.15/1/21.
Re: 6 Nations apathy
I think the injuries to both England, France and Wales haven't helped the build up to the tournament as neither will be able to put true full strength squads out, Prediction wise i think England, Wales and Ireland will win this weekend, Wales and Ireland should both win reasonably comfortably but England vs France will be close, I doubt England will score a try (if we do i think Nowell will score it) and we will see England playing safe all game with Farrell taking every penalty opportunity 
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tigerinireland
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Re: 6 Nations apathy
It doesn't feel like a top quality international competition like it did early last decade.
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tigerburnie
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Re: 6 Nations apathy
I think the fall out over the wrangling between the Unions and clubs/regions over the future of the Heineken has affected me, plus England just don't seem to be doing it for me with Slancaster in charge and the rather tedious selections in the past. Hope once it all kicks off the games will raise the interest.
"If you want entertainment, go to the theatre," says Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill. "Rugby players play the game to win.15/1/21.
Re: 6 Nations apathy
I too am completely underwhelmed and am not sure why....
Is it because England are going to struggle to do better than reach third place in the tournament ?
Or is it because the southern hemisphere teams are so much better than the rest, making the 6N feel like a 'second class' competition right now ?
Or is it, as the OP says, because of all the political arguing going on at present ?
Hopefully, after the weekend we will all be enthusing over three cracking games of rugby....
Is it because England are going to struggle to do better than reach third place in the tournament ?
Or is it because the southern hemisphere teams are so much better than the rest, making the 6N feel like a 'second class' competition right now ?
Or is it, as the OP says, because of all the political arguing going on at present ?
Hopefully, after the weekend we will all be enthusing over three cracking games of rugby....
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old one eye
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Re: 6 Nations apathy
I have never been a fan of Lancaster and at the moment I can not raise even the slightest interest in England.
I hope the next few weeks changes that.
I hope the next few weeks changes that.
Re: 6 Nations apathy
I have to agree with the majority of posters on here. The few Tigers in the team mean that I will watch the England games but I'm sure I won't enjoy it. The lack of bonus points mean that there is no incentive to score tries and really make a spectacle, this leads to teams like England hoofing and chasing for 80 minutes. Not exactly entertaining rugby.
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tigerburnie
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Re: 6 Nations apathy
I'm normally very much a glass half full type of person, but past performances do seem to leave me a touch disinterested in the 6nations and the AI's. It sort of highlights how much I'd like to see some sort of Heineken style competition going forwards.Club rugby has definaetly taken over my interests, even at LV level.
"If you want entertainment, go to the theatre," says Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill. "Rugby players play the game to win.15/1/21.
Re: 6 Nations apathy
The Unions wanting money rather than the best for their clubs, along with the fact that none of the teams seem to be top quality. France are suffering with the large scale of foreigners in their main league. England are suffering with a DoR who, despite getting decent results, plays a game of rugby that is only less predictable than his selection policy... Ireland have a very aging squad and are starting to realise their new blood isn't in the same league. Wales have their best players playing in France, whereas the Scots and the Italians just don't have the money to compete with the other four.
That being said I expect France to win, no grandslam though. Scotland for the wooden spoon.
That being said I expect France to win, no grandslam though. Scotland for the wooden spoon.
Richard Burnett
Re: 6 Nations apathy
Combined with a touch of post-Lions malaise?
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Lutontiger
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Re: 6 Nations apathy
Hi.
I read this, regarding the French team: sounds as though some there aren't excited about watching the national team either.
Hope we heed the warning for English rugby.
The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/j ... ions-blues
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These are heady days for French domestic rugby. Les Bleus will start the Six Nations against a background of a freshly minted television deal that will make the Top 14 the richest league in the oval-ball world. On top of that, the national coach, Philippe Saint-André, has achieved the holy grail that eluded his predecessors, a formal player-release agreement with the Top 14 clubs, which comes into force in June.
The five-year deal with the Canal+ pay-TV channel is worth just under £300m, well ahead of the £152m over four years negotiated by the Premiership with BT Sport, and light years removed from the £10m a year the RaboDirect Pro12 has in place. French club rugby is set to continue a transformation that began when Max Guazzini staged Stade Français's match with Toulouse at the Stade de France in front of a 79,000 crowd in 2005, and has continued with the rise of big-budget sides such as Toulon and Racing Métro.
"When you look at the quality of some of the sides on the pitch, it's dazzling," says the former international Thomas Castaignède, now a commentator at Canal+. Vern Cotter, the director of rugby at Clermont-Auvergne and shortly to become Scotland's coach, agrees. "Rugby is popular, the stadiums are full, there is a strong club identity to each team. It's been driven by professional ownership – it will keep getting stronger and will become the dominant competition in the northern hemisphere."
Cotter describes what he calls an "arms race" among the clubs. "At Clermont we had a budget of €6m [£5m], now it's €24m, Toulon have gone from about €12m to €30m, Racing from €2m to €25m. That gives you a rough idea of what you need for success." It has spread down into the second tier, Pro D2, with team budgets expanding there as well.
There is, however, another side to the coin. It goes beyond the raw logic of the marketplace that is causing one Wales international after another to move across the Channel, and has culminated in the controversy over Sam Warburton's mooted move to Toulon. France's national team have entered a trough since their grand slam in 2010. Les Bleus had a poor Six Nations in 2013, a lousy summer against New Zealand and a lacklustre autumn, ending the year with wins against only Scotland and Tonga.
Most recently, Saint-André and his captain, Pascal Papé, have openly questioned the effect that the wave of high-profile imports has had on the national side. "To fill in some positions in the team can become very difficult indeed," Papé said. "My club [Stade Français] puts their faith in homegrown players and that's important, and I wish more did the same. Other clubs don't, it's a shame and it impacts on the national side. It is something that we could really do with changing."
"The number of overseas players is an issue," Saint-André said. "I am not against foreign players, I signed them myself at Toulon – Steffon Armitage, Matt Giteau and others – and I understand that culture. The Top 14 is a cash machine and success is everything. You must win to get a return. The other week I avoided the Heineken Cup to watch Stade Français in the Amlin because it involved more French players. It is something to be addressed."
"France's rugby team has become the English soccer team," Castaignède says. "You can see the same tendencies in French rugby as with the Premier League in English soccer, and it is creating the same problems. It is exactly the same. You have the most entertaining domestic league in the world but so many foreign players that it creates problems for the national side." The journalist Julie Levy-Marchal, who writes for L'Equipe, agrees, "it is a soccer-style evolution, taking in many of the negative aspects."
The problems are multilayered, but a fundamental one with so many imported players is for the best French players to get game time, in spite of a quota system that is supposed to ensure 60% of a squad are French-registered. There have been recent instances of French internationals dropping to Pro D2 in order to get on the pitch. "The other day, I counted the number of French back-row players on the field in the Top 14, and there were only two in action, and there are other problem areas," Castaignède says. "The problem is that presidents and coaches think it is better to buy players who are mature than to form their own players over the years. The number of first-choice French players is more and more limited."
"I think the influx fuels the recruitment of good players and that can only increase the French players' level," Cottter says. "Culture is one of the most important things to have in place and it can compensate for not having an attractive roster if the players give it 100%. Players learn from players, and the coaches are so intolerant to a lack of success that the teams will move forward and get better and better."
On this point at least, Castaignède agrees: "Imagine: our young players can measure themselves against guys like Bakkies Botha, Andrew Sheridan, Jonny Wilkinson. The national selection issue distorts the championship but the players like taking on the best in the world."
As well as the prevalence of imports, Saint-André's predecessor, Thomas Lièvremont, complained bitterly about the failure of the clubs and the French national federation to reach a release agreement that allowed him to prepare his side properly. The club and country dispute has been simmering for years but it may finally have been resolved with an agreement that will be similar to England's elite player squad, with 30 players limited to 30 matches per year and which is due to come into effect in June.
"Everyone wants games and the calendar is too full," Cotter says. "Somewhere along the line you have to say you need less games and better quality on the paddock. The clubs pay the players and get the players taken off them without recompense, and sometimes they come back injured.
"Having top French players works out more expensive than having a Fijian or a Kiwi, because a club loses them for internationals, so some clubs choose the international players who aren't qualified for the Six Nations," Castaignède says. "If your French player is good, you lose him to the national team, if he's average, a foreigner may be better."
Cotter, on the other side of the fence, feels that in the long term the massive expansion in French domestic rugby will work to the advantage of the national side. "There will be about 20 fully professional teams in French rugby" – his estimate is that six D2 sides fit that description – "and a lot of those players will be French players. They got to the World Cup final in 2011, they are developing a new generation of players – the generation of Rougerie, Traille and Harinordoquy is finished – they will be very dangerous in the 2015 World Cup and will be a handful in the Six Nations."
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the theguardian.com user help desk: [email protected].
theguardian.com Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2014 Registered in England and Wales No. 908396 Registered office: PO Box 68164, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1P 2AP
I read this, regarding the French team: sounds as though some there aren't excited about watching the national team either.
Hope we heed the warning for English rugby.
The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/j ... ions-blues
----
These are heady days for French domestic rugby. Les Bleus will start the Six Nations against a background of a freshly minted television deal that will make the Top 14 the richest league in the oval-ball world. On top of that, the national coach, Philippe Saint-André, has achieved the holy grail that eluded his predecessors, a formal player-release agreement with the Top 14 clubs, which comes into force in June.
The five-year deal with the Canal+ pay-TV channel is worth just under £300m, well ahead of the £152m over four years negotiated by the Premiership with BT Sport, and light years removed from the £10m a year the RaboDirect Pro12 has in place. French club rugby is set to continue a transformation that began when Max Guazzini staged Stade Français's match with Toulouse at the Stade de France in front of a 79,000 crowd in 2005, and has continued with the rise of big-budget sides such as Toulon and Racing Métro.
"When you look at the quality of some of the sides on the pitch, it's dazzling," says the former international Thomas Castaignède, now a commentator at Canal+. Vern Cotter, the director of rugby at Clermont-Auvergne and shortly to become Scotland's coach, agrees. "Rugby is popular, the stadiums are full, there is a strong club identity to each team. It's been driven by professional ownership – it will keep getting stronger and will become the dominant competition in the northern hemisphere."
Cotter describes what he calls an "arms race" among the clubs. "At Clermont we had a budget of €6m [£5m], now it's €24m, Toulon have gone from about €12m to €30m, Racing from €2m to €25m. That gives you a rough idea of what you need for success." It has spread down into the second tier, Pro D2, with team budgets expanding there as well.
There is, however, another side to the coin. It goes beyond the raw logic of the marketplace that is causing one Wales international after another to move across the Channel, and has culminated in the controversy over Sam Warburton's mooted move to Toulon. France's national team have entered a trough since their grand slam in 2010. Les Bleus had a poor Six Nations in 2013, a lousy summer against New Zealand and a lacklustre autumn, ending the year with wins against only Scotland and Tonga.
Most recently, Saint-André and his captain, Pascal Papé, have openly questioned the effect that the wave of high-profile imports has had on the national side. "To fill in some positions in the team can become very difficult indeed," Papé said. "My club [Stade Français] puts their faith in homegrown players and that's important, and I wish more did the same. Other clubs don't, it's a shame and it impacts on the national side. It is something that we could really do with changing."
"The number of overseas players is an issue," Saint-André said. "I am not against foreign players, I signed them myself at Toulon – Steffon Armitage, Matt Giteau and others – and I understand that culture. The Top 14 is a cash machine and success is everything. You must win to get a return. The other week I avoided the Heineken Cup to watch Stade Français in the Amlin because it involved more French players. It is something to be addressed."
"France's rugby team has become the English soccer team," Castaignède says. "You can see the same tendencies in French rugby as with the Premier League in English soccer, and it is creating the same problems. It is exactly the same. You have the most entertaining domestic league in the world but so many foreign players that it creates problems for the national side." The journalist Julie Levy-Marchal, who writes for L'Equipe, agrees, "it is a soccer-style evolution, taking in many of the negative aspects."
The problems are multilayered, but a fundamental one with so many imported players is for the best French players to get game time, in spite of a quota system that is supposed to ensure 60% of a squad are French-registered. There have been recent instances of French internationals dropping to Pro D2 in order to get on the pitch. "The other day, I counted the number of French back-row players on the field in the Top 14, and there were only two in action, and there are other problem areas," Castaignède says. "The problem is that presidents and coaches think it is better to buy players who are mature than to form their own players over the years. The number of first-choice French players is more and more limited."
"I think the influx fuels the recruitment of good players and that can only increase the French players' level," Cottter says. "Culture is one of the most important things to have in place and it can compensate for not having an attractive roster if the players give it 100%. Players learn from players, and the coaches are so intolerant to a lack of success that the teams will move forward and get better and better."
On this point at least, Castaignède agrees: "Imagine: our young players can measure themselves against guys like Bakkies Botha, Andrew Sheridan, Jonny Wilkinson. The national selection issue distorts the championship but the players like taking on the best in the world."
As well as the prevalence of imports, Saint-André's predecessor, Thomas Lièvremont, complained bitterly about the failure of the clubs and the French national federation to reach a release agreement that allowed him to prepare his side properly. The club and country dispute has been simmering for years but it may finally have been resolved with an agreement that will be similar to England's elite player squad, with 30 players limited to 30 matches per year and which is due to come into effect in June.
"Everyone wants games and the calendar is too full," Cotter says. "Somewhere along the line you have to say you need less games and better quality on the paddock. The clubs pay the players and get the players taken off them without recompense, and sometimes they come back injured.
"Having top French players works out more expensive than having a Fijian or a Kiwi, because a club loses them for internationals, so some clubs choose the international players who aren't qualified for the Six Nations," Castaignède says. "If your French player is good, you lose him to the national team, if he's average, a foreigner may be better."
Cotter, on the other side of the fence, feels that in the long term the massive expansion in French domestic rugby will work to the advantage of the national side. "There will be about 20 fully professional teams in French rugby" – his estimate is that six D2 sides fit that description – "and a lot of those players will be French players. They got to the World Cup final in 2011, they are developing a new generation of players – the generation of Rougerie, Traille and Harinordoquy is finished – they will be very dangerous in the 2015 World Cup and will be a handful in the Six Nations."
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the theguardian.com user help desk: [email protected].
theguardian.com Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2014 Registered in England and Wales No. 908396 Registered office: PO Box 68164, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1P 2AP
Re: 6 Nations apathy
Cant wait. Come on England.
Re: 6 Nations apathy
It would be nice to see some teams trying to win with flair and style like Smurph (below) .France I'm looking at you! 
http://rugbyonslaught.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... ordan.html
http://rugbyonslaught.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... ordan.html
Re: 6 Nations apathy
TigerLad wrote:It would be nice to see some teams trying to win with flair and style like Smurph (below) .France I'm looking at you!
http://rugbyonslaught.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... ordan.html
Kicking the ball away in the opposition 22 with a two to one overlap......
