Bonus Points

The Six Nations Council have seen fit to trial the bonus point system in the 2017 Six Nations across all three competitions , Women , Men’s and 20s. This move will see all teams awarded 4 points for a win and a bonus point for either scoring 4 or more tries or losing by less than 7 points, the same system is applied in Super Rugby and in all European Rugby competitions.

This move will only enhance the 6 Nations as the tournament had really only seen one major change with Italy being added in 2000. They have done away with the old two point system with no incentive for any team to play attacking rugby. This move will hopefully see a team like France find there mojo again and start playing with Gallic flair which they were once famed for.

This will mean that all matches will have something tangible attached to them. One would hope that for at least the 2017 Six Nations we won’t see 6 teams trying to win penalties to try and secure a win.

Italy in particular will now have to embrace a more attack minded style and with a coaching team of Mike Catt and Conor O Shea between those two men they should be very capable of coming up with some real quality set piece moves that may shock the other 5 competing sides. Italy have long been seen as a side that only plays 8 man rugby but they will be forced to move the ball that bit wider in 2017 !!!

The Six Nations Council has to be credited with bringing the Six Nations into line with the rest of World Rugby, for far too long it was stuck in a time warp with no imagination or fore sight. Not for one moment am I suggesting that all the issues within rugby are fixed because World Rugby still has many problems to iron out, what role does the TMO actually play ?, stopping the clock at scrum time until the ball in back in play and so forth.

This move has to be seen by all competing nations as a big step forward and hopefully it will work out for the best and we will see it become permanent from 2018 and beyond. It’s time for all teams across the 6 Nations to embrace this change and let’s see some of the attacking rugby that was a feature on the final day of the 2015 Six Nations in particular.

The benefit of this system has been seen in the European Cup and Super Rugby for many years and we have seen what sort of exciting rugby can be played when both teams put it all on the line in the pursuit of glory…….

By

Cian MC Gibney

30/11/2016