I heard last week that plans to condense the six nations are gathering momentum.

Condensation is a dreadful thing, just ask Craig Doyle of BT Rugby, maybe he can use contacts from his old job to double glaze the tournament and prevent this condensation from happening.

This is your Everest boys as Jim Telfer would say.

Ian Richie the CEO of England rugby supports plans to reduce the tournament’s length, and play it over five consecutive weekends

Unlike his namesake, Lionel, I’m not exactly dancing on the ceiling at the prospect

Richie says

“We believe it is perfectly right to have a six-week competition as opposed to seven, it would narrow the off periods and help with the broader narrative, we think it would improve it”

I have to confess I have no idea what a broader narrative is, in this case, and even less of an idea as to whether or not it would be helped, but I do know that once again player welfare has been kicked into touch, and that is as broad a narrative as I need.

England with their strength in-depth may be the only home nation to benefit from such a reduction in recovery time, so maybe this is a factor in Richie’s stance.

Can you imagine  having to play the following weekend after the brutal Wales v Ireland encounter ?

Even more so in the case of the Scottish players, who suffered multiple injuries against England, having to return to action six days after the Twickenham clash would be a massive disadvantage.

The six nations board meet in April, and are expected to ratify plans to adopt a six-week tournament from 2020, with only a one week break between the third and fourth rounds

The old saying if it ain’t broken don’t fix it seems a very apt one in relation to the six nations tournament.

RUGBY WORLD MAGAZINE TWITTER POLL

Last week Rugby world posted a tweet asking “where was the furthest distance anyone had travelled to watch a rugby match”

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I didn’t feel remotely qualified to answer this question, as all my rugby life on and off the field has been spent in Europe.

 
Then it suddenly dawned on me that I must have travelled further than anyone, because following Wales for forty nine years has taken me to hell and back, and that is quite a distance.